:iiii||||iii|||lliiil||||l|i 


GIFT  OF 

SEELEY  W.  MUDD 

and 

GEORGE  I.  COCHRAN     MEYER  ELSASSER 

DR.  JOHN  R.  HAYNES    WILLIAM  L.  HONNOLD 

JAMES  R.  MARTIN         MRS.  JOSEPH  F.  SARTOR! 

to  the 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

SOUTHERN  BRANCH 


8  9  6T 


4 


HISTORY 


NEW    ENGLAND. 


BY 


JOHN    GORHAM    PALFREY. 


VOLUME     I. 


Nee  mihi  materiam  [natalis  terra]  negabat, 
Et  plus  est  patriae  facta  referre  labor. 


BOSTON: 
LITTLE,    BROWN,    AND    COMPANY. 

1865.  -^ 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1868,  by 

JOHN  GOBHA.H    PALFREY. 

in  the  Clerlt's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts. 


Cambridge:  Priotcd  by  Welch,  Bigelow,  &  Co. 


HISTORY 


OP 


NEW    ENGLAND 

DURING  THE   STUART  DYNASTY. 

BY 

JOHN     GOKHAM    PALFREY. 

IN  THREE  VOLUMES. 
VOL.   I. 


BOSTON: 
LITTLE,    BROWN,    AND    COMPANY. 

1865. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1858,  by 

JOHN    GORHAM    PALFREY, 

ID  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts. 


Cambridge :  Printed  by  Welch,  Higclow,  &  Co. 


< 


To    JARED    SPARKS. 


My  dear  Sparks  ; 

Seven  times  seven  years  ago  this  day,  you,  coming  from  Connecticut, 
and  I,  from  Massachusetts,  arrived  at  the  Academy  in  Exeter,  New 
Hampshire.     For  two  years  we  were  lodged  beneath  the  same  roof,  and 
recited  our  lessons  from  the  same  form.    Next  we  were  classmates  through 
1,^     the  undergraduate  course  at  Cambridge.      Next  we  there  pursued  to- 
gether our  studies  for  the  profession  to  which  we  expected  to  devote  our 
lives.     You  went  to  a  distant  city ;  we  kept  up  a  constant  intercourse 
^    of  letters  and  visits.     You  came  to  live  in  Boston,  and  we  met  almost 
•^    every  day.     I  removed  to  Cambridge  ;  you  followed  soon ;  and,  since 
^    that  time,  our  homes  have  been  side  by  side.     Friendships  of  such  inti- 
cc    macy  and  duration  are  rare.     It  is  not  chiefly  because  the  reading  world 
so  honors  you,  —  still  less  is  it  from  a  wish  to  involve  you  in  responsi- 
bility for  any  of  my  defects,  —  that,  in  coming  before  the  public  with  an 
essay  in  a  department  of  writing  in  which  you  have  won  a  wide  renown, 
I  desire  to  associate  your  name  with  that  of 


JOHN  GORHAM  PALFREY. 


Cambridge,  Massachusetts ; 
September  7,  1858. 


ADVERTISEMENT 

TO   THE   PRESENT   EDITION, 


The  title-page  to  tins  edition  is  embellished  with  an  engraved 
copy  of  what  was  probably  the  seal  of  the  Council  for  New 
England.  When  I  was  in  England  I  took  great  pains  to  find  an 
impression  of  that  seal,  but  without  success  ;  which  surprised  me, 
the  patents  issued  by  the  Council  having  been  so  numerous. 
An  impression  of  the  seal  in  wax  is  attached  to  the  patent  of 
Plymouth  Colony  issued  in  1629 ;  but  it  has  been  so  broken  and 
defaced,  that  the  device  is  undistinguishable.  Mr,  Charles  Deane 
believes  that  he  has  discovered  this  in  an  embellishment  of  the 
title-pages  of  two  of  the  publications  of  Captain  John  Smith.  I 
might  do  injustice  to  Mr.  Deane's  ingenious  argument  (which 
I  understand  will  soon  be  published  in  a  volume  of  the  Proceed- 
ings of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society),  should  I  attempt 
to  exhibit  it.     It  will  be  found  to  have  great  force. 

The  Index  to  my  work,  in  the  enlarged  form  which  it  now 
bears,  is  a  fruit  of  the  judgment  and  skill  of  Dr.  John  Apple- 
ton,  the  learned  Assistant-Librarian  of  the  Massachusetts  His- 
torical Society. 

J.  G.  P. 

Cambridge,  Massachusetts ; 
1865,  July  21. 


PREFACE. 


I  PROPOSE  to  relate,  in  several  volumes,  the  history  of  the 
people  of  New  England. 

In  this  first  volume  I  treat  of  the  Settlement  of  New  England, 
meaning  by  that  word,  not  only  the  arrival  of  European  colo- 
nists, but  the  framing  and  establishing  of  that  social  system, 
under  which,  through  successive  generations,  their  descendants 
have  been  educated  for  the  part  which  they  have  acted  in  the 
world. 

The  founders  of  the  commonwealths  of  which  I  write  were 
Englishmen.  Their  emigration  to  New  England  began  in  1620. 
It  was  inconsiderable  till  1630.  At  the  end  of  ten  years  more, 
it  almost  ceased.  A  people,  consisting  at  that  time  of  not  many 
more  than  twenty  thousand  persons,  thenceforward  multiplied  on 
its  own  soil,  in  remarkable  seclusion  from  other  communities,  for 
nearly  a  century  and  a  half.  Some  slight  emigrations  from  it 
took  place  at  an  early  day ;  but  they  were  soon  discontinued ; 
and  it  was  not  till  the  last  quarter  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
that  those  swarms  began  to  depart,  which  have  since  occupied 
so  large  a  portion  of  the  territory  of  the  United  States. 

During  that  long  period,  and  for  many  years  later,  their  iden- 
tity was  unimpaired.  No  race  has  ever  been  more  homogeneous 
than  this  remained,  down  to  the  time  of  the  generation  now  upon 
the  stage.  With  a  near  approach  to  precision  it  may  be  said, 
that  the  millions  of  living  persons,  either  born  in  New  England, 
or  tracing  their  origin  to  natives  of  that  region,  are  descendants 


yiii  PREFACE. 

of  the  twentj-onc  thousand  Englishmen  who  came  over  before 
the  early  emigration  from  England  ceased  upon  the  meeting  of 
the  Long  Parliament,  Such  exceptions  to  this  statement,  as  he- 
long  to  any  time  preceding  that  of  tlic  present  generation,  are  of 
small  account.  In  1652,  after  the  battles  of  Dunbar  and  Worces- 
ter, Cromwell  sent  some  four  or  five  hundred  of  his  Scotch 
prisoners  to  Boston ;  but  very  little  trace  of  this  accession  is 
left.  The  discontented  strangers  took  no  root.  After  the 
revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes  in  1685,  about  a  hundred 
and  fifty  families  of  French  Huguenots  came  to  Massachusetts, 
where,  though  their  names  have  mostly  died  out,  a  considerable 
number  of  their  posterity  are  yet  to  be  found.  A  hundred  and 
twenty  Scotch-Irish  families  came  over  in  1719,  and  settled  at 
Londonderry,  in  New  Hampshire,  and  elsewhere.  Great  num- 
bers of  foreigners  —  especially  of  Irish,  and,  next  to  them,  of 
Germans  —  are  now  to  be  reckoned  in  a  census  of  New  Eng- 
land ;  but  it  is  chiefly  within  the  last  thirty  years  that  they 
have  come,  and  they  remain  for  the  most  part  unamalgamated 
with  the  population  of  English  descent. 

Thus  the  people  of  New  England  are  a  singularly  unmixed 
race.  There  is  probably  not  a  county  in  England  occupied  by  a 
population  of  purer  English  blood  than  theirs.  It  is  a  race  still 
more  specially  to  be  characterized  as  representing  a  peculiar 
type  of  the  Englishmen  of  the  seventeenth  century.  A  large 
majority  of  the  early  planters  were  Puritans.  Some  of  the  small 
English  settlements  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  country  were 
composed  of  other  elements.  ^But,  from  the  early  time  when 
these  were  absorbed  by  Massachusetts,  their  anti-Puritan  pecu- 
liarities began  to  disappear,  and  a  substantial  conformity  to 
the  Puritan  standard  became  universal. 

Sequestered  from  foreign  influences,  the  people  thus  consti- 
tuted was  forming  a  distinct  character  by  its  own  discipline,  and 
was  engaged  at  work  within  itself,  on  its  own  problems,  through 
a  century  and  a  half.  Down  to  the  eve  of  the  war  which  began 
in  1775,  Now  England  had  little  knowledge  of  the  communi- 
ties which  took  part  with  her  in  that  conflict.     Till  the  time  of 


PREFACE.  ix 

the  Boston  Port  Bill,  eighty-four  years  ago,  Massachusetts  and 
Virginia,  the  two  principal  English  colonies,  had  with  each 
other  scarcely  more  relations  of  acquaintance,  business,  mutual 
influence,  or  common  action,  than  either  of  them  had  with 
Jamaica  or  Quebec. 

This  people,  so  isolated  in  its  pupilage,  has  now  diffused  itself 
widely.  I  am  to  tell  the  early  story  of  a  vast  tribe  of  men, 
numbering  at  the  present  time,  it  is  likely,  some  seven  or  eight 
millions.  Exactness  in  such  an  estimate  is  not  attainable ;  but 
it  would  probably  be  coming  somewhere  near  the  truth  to  divide 
the  present  white  population  of  the  United  States  into  three  equal 
parts ;  one,  belonging  to  the  New-England  stock  ;  one,  the  pos- 
terity of  English  who  settled  in  the  other  Atlantic  colonies  ;  and 
anotlier,  consisting  of  the  aggregate  of  Irish,  Scotch,  French, 
Dutch,  German,  Swedish,  Spanish,  and  other  immigrants,  and 
their  descendants.  According  to  the  United  States'  Census  of 
1850,  the  six  New-England  States  had  in  that  year  2,705,095 
inhabitants,  of  which  number  305,444  were  of  foreign  birth. 
It  would,  I  suppose,  be  making  a  liberal  allowance  to  refer  the 
round  number  of  half  a  million  of  the  present  inhabitants  of 
those  States  to  the  modern  immigrations  from  abroad.  On  the 
other  hand,  more  than  seven  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  natives 
of  New  England  —  often  persons  not  inconsiderable  in  respect  to 
activity,  property,  or  influence  —  are  supposed  to  be  now  living 
in  other  parts  of  the  Union.*  The  New-England  race  has  con- 
tributed largely  to  the  population  of  the  great  State  of  New  York, 
and  makes  a  majority  in  some  of  the  new  States  further  west. 
Considerable  numbers  of  them  are  dispersed  in  distant  parts 
of  the  world,  where  commerce  or  other  business  invites  enter- 
prise, though  they  do  not  often  establish  themselves  for  life  in 
foreign  countries.  I  presume  there  is  one  third  of  the  people 
of  these  United  States  —  wherever  now  residing  —  of  whom  no 
individual  could  peruse  this  volume  without  reading  the  history 
of  his  own  progenitors. 

*  Hunt's  Merchants' Magazine,  XXX.  637. 


X  PREFACE. 

"  The  principles  of  Xew  England,"  says  a  distinguished  foreign 
writer,  "  spread  at  first  to  the  neighboring  States  ;  then  they 
passed  successively  to  the  more  distant  ones  ;  and  at  length  they 
imbued  the  whole  Confederation."  *  To  allude  here  to  influ- 
ences exerted  by  the  people  of  New  England  on  the  fortunes  of 
the  nation  of  which  it  now  makes  a  part,  would  be  to  antici- 
pate later  portions  of  my  narrative.  But  there  is  one  evidence 
of  their  efficiency,  which  admits  of  the  simple  and  precise  illus- 
tration of  figures.  The  reader  of  this  volume  will  see  how  poor 
was  Massachusetts  in  her  early  years.  Her  soil  is  barren ;  and 
she  has  no  natural  staple  commodity  of  great  value  in  the  mar- 
kets of  the  world.  Yet  at  the  present  time,  a  little  more  than 
two  centuries  and  a  quarter  from  the  date  of  her  foundation,  her 
taxable  property  —  exclusive  of  property  belonging  to  institutions 
of  religion,  education,  and  benevolence  —  amounts  to  a  thousand 
millions  of  dollars.  Equally  divided,  it  would  afford  more  than 
eight  hundred  and  eighty  dollars  each  to  every  man,  woman, 
and  child  within  her  borders.  From  the  reserved  fruits  of  the 
labor  of  eight  generations  "  she  could  give  a  dollar  to  each  of 
the  thousand  millions  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth,  and  still 
have  all  her  schools,  meeting-houses,  towijL-houses,  alms-houses, 
gaols,  and  literary,  benevolent,  and  scientific  institutions,  left  as 
nest-eggs  to  begin  the  world  anew."  f  The  value  of  the  regis- 
tered products  of  the  labor  of  her  people  for  the  year  ending 
June  1,  1855,  —  undoubtedly  falling  far  short  of  the  actual 
amount,  —  was  two  hundred  and  ninety-five  million  eight  hun- 
dred and  twenty  thousand  six  hundred  and  eighty-one  dollars. :j: 

The  history  and  education  of  a  race  so  numerous,  so  peculiar, 
80  widely  scattered,  and  constituting  so  large  an  element  of  the 
wealth  and  power  of  a  great  nation,  present  a  subject  well  worthy 
of  attention.     When  I  began  to  think  of  it  as  offering  a  suitable 

•  De  Torqueville,  Democracy  in  America,  Chap.  11. 

t  Christian  Examiner,  LXV.  34. 

X  Stati.stic:al  Information  relating  to  certain  Branches  of  Industry  in  Mas- 
sachusetts, collected  and  published  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Commonwealth 
in  1856. 


PREFACE.  XI 

employment  for  what  may  remain  of  my  life,  it  had  already  been 
long  a  favorite  occupation  of  my  leisure,  and  I  had  occasionally 
treated  portions  of  it  in  the  periodical  publications  of  the  day. 
In  the  more  careful  investigations  into  which  I  have  now  been 
led,  I  have  been  gratified  to  find  confirmation  of  judgments 
which  I  had  earlier  expressed  respecting  some  prominent  fea- 
tures of  the  theme. 

I  persuade  myself  that  I  have  been  both  diligent  and  success- 
ful in  the  search  for  information.  Large  supplies  of  original 
materials  for  my  work  lay  close  at  hand  in  the  libraries  of  the 
University  at  Cambridge,  of  the  Boston  Athenaeum,  and  of  the 
Massachusetts  Historical  Society ;  and,  on  the  part  of  each  of 
those  institutions,  I  have  had  every  accommodation  that  could  be 
desired.  I  was  also  liberally  welcomed  to  the  use  of  different 
private  collections,  among  which  I  ought  particularly  to  mention 
the  valuable  ones  of  my  neighbor,  Mr.  Charles  Deane,  and  of  Mr. 
John  Carter  Brown  of  Providence.  Mr.  Deane's  books  were 
a  constant  resource  to  me ;  and  Mr.  Brown,  to  whom  I  am 
indebted  for  access  to  some  not  to  be  found  elsewhere,  carried 
his  generosity  so  far  as  to  request  me  to  take  to  my  own  home  as 
much  of  his  choice  and  sumptuous  collection,  as  my  convenience 
might  require. 

In  the  spring  of  1856  I  went  to  England,  for  the  purpose  of 
obtaining  a  knowledge  of  some  facts  important  to  my  purpose, 
and  of  satisfying  myself  on  some  questions  that  had  arisen. 
Mr.  Dallas,  Minister  from  the  United  States,  promptly  interested 
himself  in  my  behalf.  At  his  instance,  Mr.  Labouchere,  Secre- 
tary of  State  for  the  Colonies,  obligingly  gave  the  necessary 
directions  for  my  admission  to  those  public  offices  where  much 
of  my  quest  was  to  be  made.  Mr.  Merivale,  Under  Secretary  of 
the  Colonial  Department,  promoted  my  investigations,  and  they 
were  facilitated  by  the  kindness  of  Mr.  Reeves,  Secretary  to 
the  Privy  Council,  and  of  Mr.  Lechmere  and  Mr.  Lemon,  of  the 
State-Paper  Office.  I  would  gratefully  record  my  obligations 
also  to  Mr.  Panizzi,  Principal  Librarian  of  the  British  Museum, 
and  to  Mr.  Jones,  Mr.  Watts,  and  Mr.  Major,  of  that  institution, 


Xii  PREFACE. 

for  the  useful  attentions  by  which  they  enabled  me  to  avail 
myself  of  its  treasures.  I  employed  most  of  the  summer  in 
tiie  examination,  in  London,  of  records  and  other  manuscripts, 
and  in  the  consultation  of  rare  books.  A  large  portion  of  my 
memoranda,  then  obtained  from  the  sources  which  I  have  indi- 
cated, and  from  others,  relate  to  periods  of  the  history  more 
recent  than  that  which  is  treated  in  the  present  volume.  Many 
of  the  hours  when  the  public  establishments  were  closed,  I  was 
enabled,  by  the  hospitality  of  the  Athenaeum  Club  and  the  Re- 
form Club,  to  employ,  advantageously  for  my  object,  among  the 
standard  books  of  their  excellent  libraries. 

I  have  regarded  it  as  the  duty  of  an  historian  to  rely  most  upon 
the  evidence  of  those  witnesses  (provided  they  were  otherwise 
trustworthy)  who  lived  nearest  in  time  and  place  to  the  events 
related ;  and  I  have  not  knowingly  rested  any  statement  on 
authority  of  an  inferior  description.  Governor  Winthrcp's 
"  History  of  New  England,"  Governor  Bradford's  "  History 
of  Plymouth  Plantation,"  and  Nathaniel  Morton's  "  New  Eng- 
land's Memorial,"  as  edited  respectively  by  Mr.  Savage,  Mr. 
Deane,  and  Judge  Davis,  are  rich  storehouses  of  information 
respecting  the  events  of  our  primitive  times.  The  thirty-four 
volumes  of  published  "  Collections  of  the  Massachusetts  His- 
torical Society "  comprehend  numerous  treatises,  larger  and 
smaller,  of  the  liighest  value  to  the  historical  student.  The  less 
extensive  published  Collections  of  the  American  Antiquarian 
Society,  of  the  Historical  Societies  of  Maine,  New  Hampshire, 
Rhode  Island,  and  New  York,  of  Mr.  Force  of  Washington, 
and  of  Messrs.  Farmer  and  Moore  of  New  Hampshire,  have 
materially  increased  the  fund  of  historical  wealth.  Single 
tracts,  to  which  I  have  had  access,  now  extant  in  a  small 
number  of  copies,  whether  printed  or  manuscript,  have  often 
served  a  useful  purpose.  The  official  Records  of  Plymouth  and 
of  Massachusetts,  as  recently  edited  by  Dr.  Shurtleff,  those  of 
Rliodc  Island,  l)y  Mr.  Bartlctt,  those  of  Connecticut,  by  Mr. 
Trumbull,  and  those  of  New  Haven,  by  Mr.  Hoadly,  are  of 
course  documents  of  the  highest  authenticity  and  import,  and 
have  been  daily  in  my  hands. 


PREFACE.  XIU 

I  have  thought  that  the  course  of  early  events  in  New  Eng- 
land required  often  to  be  interpreted  by  bringing  to  view  their 
relations  to  earlier  and  contemporaneous  transactions  in  the 
parent  country.  So  far  as  I  have  recounted  those  transactions, 
I  have  been  dealing  with  the  commonplaces  of  history.  But  I 
have  endeavored  to  secure  myself  against  one-sided  represen- 
tations by  constant  reference  to  the  views  entertained  by  writers 
of  various  affinities,  political  and  religious ;  and  I  have  written 
with  the  works  (among  others)  of  Hume,  Lingard,  Hallam, 
Neal,  and  Mrs.  Macaulay  constantly  before  me.  Whenever  a 
questionable  statement  of  any  fact  presented  itself,  I  have  re- 
ferred to  the  Parliamentary  History,  and  to  the  Journals  of  the 
Lords  and  of  the  Commons,  as  well  as  to  the  early  books  of 
general  history,  or  to  books  belonging  to  some  special  depart- 
ment, or  treating  some  particular  topic,  according  to  the  nature 
of  the  case, 

I  have  not  failed  to  seek  instruction  and  suggestions  from 
those  who  have  preceded  me  in  this  line  of  research.  Besides 
writers  who  have  treated  of  the  origin  and  progress  of  New 
England  as  a  part  only  of  the  more  comprehensive  history 
of  the  United  States,  others  —  especially  Hutchinson,  Belknap, 
and  Trumbull  —  produced  works  in  the  last  century  which  will 
have  a  durable  value  in  respect  to  the  history  of  single  States ; 
while,  among  our  contemporaries,  Mr.  Elliott,  Mr.  William- 
son, Mr.  Hollister,  Mr.  Baylies,  and  Mr.  Barry,  by  their  works 
respectively  on  the  history  of  New  England,  of  Maine,  of  Con- 
necticut, of  Plymouth,  and  of  Massachusetts,  have  secured  an 
honorable  reputation  for  diligence  in  this  field.  A  History  of 
Bhode  Island  is  announced,  from  the  able  pen  of  Mr.  Samuel 
Greene  Arnold  of  Providence.  I  regret  that  it  has  not  appeared 
in  season  for  me  to  compare  the  conclusions  which  I  have 
reached  in  that  department  of  inquiry,  with  those  of  so  well- 
instructed  and  judicious  a  writer.  The  "  Historical  Discourse  " 
of  Callender  —  hitherto  the  principal  authority  on  the  subject  — 
does  not  satisfy  curiosity  as  to  the  course  of  events  in  the 
Narragansett  settlements. 

VOL.  I.  b 


xiv  PREFACE. 

Ill  treating  such  a  theme,  so  far  am  I  from  any  ambition  of 
appearing  to  have  gone  on  unaided,  that  I  should  deem  myself 
blamable,  had  1  not  sought  help  in  every  accessible  quarter, 
and,  in  particular,  had  1  not  applied  at  the  best  sources  for 
that  local  and  circumstantial  information  which  sometimes  is 
not  to  be  had  from  books.  From  Mr.  George  Folsom,  formerly 
of  Maine,  Mr.  John  Langdon-Elwyn  of  Portsmouth  in  New 
Hampshire,  Mr.  "William  S.  Russell  of  Plymouth,  Dr.  King  of 
Newport,  Mr.  J.  Hammond  Trumbull  of  Hartford,  Mr.  Charles 
J.  Hoadly,  editor  of  the  Records  of  New  Haven,  Mr.  Sabine, 
formerly  of  Eastport,  and  the  Reverend  Alonzo  H.  Quint,  for- 
merly of  Dover,  I  have  received  material  assistance  in  the  treat- 
ment of  those  portions  of  my  subject  with  which  these  gentlemen, 
from  their  respective  positions  and  from  the  course  of  their 
studies,  were  minutely  acquainted.  If  I  have  fallen  into  error 
in  regard  to  matters  of  fact  on  which  I  have  consulted  them,  it 
must  have  been  through  misapprehension  of  their  statements. 

In  the  preparation  of  different  parts  of  my  work,  I  have  had 
assistance  from  so  many  sources,  that  I  cannot  undertake  to 
enumerate  them  all.  My  obligations  to  Professor  Guyot,  in 
respect  to  the  Physical  Geography  of  New  England,  I  have 
acknowledged  in  another  place.  Professor  Gray,  Professor 
Cooke,  Professor  Wyman,  and  Mr.  George  B.  Emerson,  gave 
me  information  concerning  different  branches  of  its  Natural 
History.  Dr.  J.  G.  Kohl,  whose  return  to  his  own  country 
the  scholars  of  this  do  not  cease  to  regret,  contributed  to  my 
knowledge  of  the  movements  of  the  early  voyagers  to  this  con- 
tinent. Count  Pulszky  (with  whom  in  Europe  I  was  so  for- 
tunate as  to  renew  my  acquaintance),  and  Mr.  George  Sumner, 
h('lj)ed  me  to  understand  the  adventures  of  Captain  John  Smith. 
At  different  stages  in  the  prosecution  of  my  work,  I  have  found 
new  occasion  to  appreciate  the  learning  and  judgment  of  Mr. 
Parsons,  Dr.  Francis,  Mr.  Bowcn,  Mr.  Torrey,  and  Mr.  Lowell, 
Professors  in  the  University  at  Cambridge,  and  of  Mr.  Cliarles 
Francis  Adams,  the  Reverend  Edward  Everett  Hale,  Mr.  Charles 
Eliot  Norton,  and  other  friends,  competent  and  ready  to  ren- 


PREFACE.  XV 

der  me  important  aid.  Mr.  Charles  Deane  has  been  indefati- 
gable in  giving  me  the  benefit  of  his  large  acquisition  of 
knowledge  respecting  our  early  annals. 

To  no  one  am  I  indebted  for  more  light  than  to  that  eminent 
archaeologist,  Mr.  Samuel  Foster  Haven,  of  Worcester.  Espe- 
cially have  I  been  aided  by  him  in  elaborating  the  view,  pre- 
sented in  these  pages,  of  the  origin  and  purposes  of  the  Com- 
pany of  Massachusetts  Bay.  So  long  ago  as  the  year  1837,* 
as  well  as  at  different  times  since,  I  published  my  thoughts 
respecting  the  political  relations  of  some  of  those  early  move- 
ments of  the  government  of  Massachusetts,  which  have  gener- 
ally been  ascribed  to  religious  bigotryT^  I  have  been  greatly 
assisted  in  maturing  them  by  Mr.  Haven's  treatise  on  the  Mas- 
sachusetts Company,  in  the  third  volume  of  the  "  Collections  of 
the  American  Antiquarian  Society,"  and  not  less  by  private 
correspondence  with  which  he  has  honored  me. 

In  making  up  the  narrative  from  materials  thus  carefully 
brought  together,  it  is  little  to  say  that  I  have  aimed  to  be 
veracious  and  just.  I  should  have  been  neither,  if  I  had  affected 
to  conceal  my  veneration  for  the  founders  of  New  England.  But 
I  hope  that  I  am  not  disqualified  for  writing  of  their  conduct 
without  undue  bias  in  their  iavor.  My  ancestors,  on  the  one  side 
and  on  the  other,  were  in  Plymouth  and  in  Massachusetts  from 
the  earliest  moment  of  those  Colonies  ;  but  they  never  acted  any 
conspicuous  part  in  the  public  business.  Nor  am  I  in  danger  of 
being  induced  by  religious  sympathy  to  judge  the  leading  actors 
with  too  much  indulgence.  My  interpretations  of  the  Gos- 
pel differ  widely  from  those  which  have  ruled  in  the  coun- 
cils of  the  New  England  commonwealths,  from  the  colonization 
down  to  a  time  within  the  memory  of  living  men.  With  the 
belief  which  I  entertain,  I  could  not  have  been  admitted  to 
any  church  established  by  the  Fathers,  if,  indeed,  an  attempt 
to  propagate  my  belief  would  not  have  made  me  an  exile  from 
their  society. 

*  North  American  Review,  XLIV.  568  et  seq. 


XVI  PREFACE. 

It  will  not  surprise  me  to  leani  that  I  am  thought,  in  the 
composition  of  the  work,  to  have  indulged  myself  too  freely  in  the 
interweaving  of  quotations.  It  is  however  of  set  purpose,  that, 
especially  in  relating  some  parts  of  the  story,  I  have  adopted 
a  method  which  mere  considerations  of  rhetorical  taste  might 
not  recommend.  The  peculiar  language  of  the  men  whom  I 
describe  is  a  substantive  part  of  their  peculiar  history.  It 
displays  the  form  and  pressure  of  the  place  and  time.  Tbe 
phraseology  of  the  actors  is  to  the  I'eader  a  constant  expositor 
and  reminder  of  the  complexion  of  the  thoughts  and  sentiments 
that  determined  the  course  of  affairs. 

In  the  journey  which  I  have  been  pursuing,  I  have  observed 
some  erring  steps  of  writers  who  have  trodden  the  same  path 
before  me.  But  it  would  ill  become  me  to  point  them  out  with 
censure.  I  have  learned  too  well  how  difficult  it  is  to  master 
such  a  multiplicity  of  details  as  lies  within  the  compass  of  this 
narrative.  1  seem  to  myself  to  have  used  extreme  diligence 
in  the  authentication  of  facts ;  but  I  shall  be  svirprised  if  the 
accurate  knowledge  of  some  who  will  read  what  I  have  written 
shall  not  convict  me  of  mistakes. 

In  the  copper-plate  Map  of  New  England  prefixed  to  this  vol- 
ume, the  delineation  of  mountain  topography  records  the  personal 
observations  of  Professor  Guyot,  who,  with  that  generosity  which 
always  actuates  him,  communicated  them  to  me  for  this  use. 
The  names  affixed  to  the  principal  ranges  and  peaks  have,  of 
course,  been  recently  applied,  differing  in  that  respect  from  the 
names  inserted  along  the  coast  line,  which  were  in  use  at  the 
close  of  the  history  related  in  this  volume.  The  "  photo-litho- 
gi-aphed"  copy  of  the  Map  of  Captain  Smith  represents  the 
first  edition  of  it,  published  in  London  in  1G16.  The  copy  of 
William  Wood's  Map  of  New  England  is  taken  from  the  print 
inserted  in  his  "  New  England's  Prospect,"  issued  in  London 
in  1G36,  which  is  in  the  Library  of  Harvard  College.  John 
Underhill's  "  Newes  from  New  England,"  which  has  furnished 
the  litliographcd  plan  of  the  attack  on  the  Pequot  fort,  is 
also  in  tliat  Library.     But  the  plan  is  there  mutilated,  and  the 


PREFACE.  XVii 

defect  has  been  supplied  from  another  copy,  belonging  to  Mr. 
John  Carter  Brown. 

It  only  remains  for  me  to  avow  my  obligations  to  my  almost 
lifelong  friend,  Mr.  Charles  Folsom,  for  the  very  important  favor 
of  a  careful  revisal  of  the  sheets  of  this  volume  as  they  passed 
through  the  press.  At  every  step  his  critical  sagacity  and  prac- 
tised judgment  have  stood  me  greatly  in  stead. 

J.  G.  P. 


6* 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Map  of  New  England  in  1620-1644      .        .        .        Before  the  Title-page. 

Mill  at  Chesterton  in  AVarwickshire Page  58 

Round  Tower  at  Newport      .........      58 

Smith's  Map  of  New  England  in  1614 94 

Wood's  Map  of  New  England  in  1634 360 

PequotFort 466 


CONTENTS 

OF    THE    FIRST    VOLUME 


CHAPTER    I. 


Physical  Geography.  Page 

Peninsula  south  of  the  St  Lawrence 2 

Area  of  New  England 2 

Ranges  of  Highlands  ..........  3 

Increase  In  the  Height  of  Mountains  towards  the  North  ....  5 

Sources  and  Direction  of  Rivers         .         ....         .         .         .  7 

The  Connecticut    . 7 

The  Eastern  and  the  Western  Rivers 8 

Lakes     .        .        .        .        •        .        . 9 

Harbors  and  Bays      .         .         .         ...         .         .         .         .        .  10 

Meteorology,  Climate,  A>fD  Soil. 

Temperature  .        .,        ..        .....  .         .         .         .10 

Rain  and  Droughts 11 

Lo.cal  Diseases 12 

Agriculture         ...........  13 

Soil 14 

Natural  History. 

Minerals  and  Botany  ........         ...  15 

Fishes  and  Birds 17 

Insects 18 

Reptiles  and  Quadrupeds .        .19 

Aboriginal  Inhabitants. 

Observations  of  the  First  Voyagers  on  the  Natives       .        .        .        .  19 
The  American  Indians  a  Separate  Family  of  Mankind    .        .        .        .22 

Sevenfold  Division  of  the  North-American  Indians      ....  23 

Twofold  Division  of  the  New-England  Indians 23 

Aboriginal  Population  of  New  England 24 

Number           ...........  24 

Physical  Characteristics 25 

Dress,  Houses,  and  Food 26 

Horticulture  and  Fishing     ........  27 

Manufactures 28 


XX  COXTENTS. 

Tools,  Arms,  Ornaments,  and  Furniture 29 

Want  of  Domestic  Animals  ........  30 

Domestic  Relations 30 

Burials 31 

Trade  and  ^loney 31 

Indolent  Habits,  and  Love  of  Gambling  and  Drunkenness    .         .  32 

Inventions 83 

Music,  Dancing,  and  Eloquence 33 

"Want  of  Science      ..........  35 

Civil  State  and  Government 36 

Sachems  and  Sageunores 38 

Languages    ...........  40 

Grammatical  Forms  ,         .         .         .         .         .         .         .41 

Vocabulary   ..........  43 

Religion    ............  43 

Power  of  Endurance      .........  49 

Inferior  Capacity  for  Civilization 50 

CHAPTER    II. 

Early  Voyages  and  Explorations. 

Alleged  Voyages  of  Northmen  to  North  America        ....  51 

Voyage  of  Biorne .         .         .         .63 

Voyage  of  Leif  ..........  53 

Voyages  of  Thorwald  and  Thorfinn        ......  54 

Dighton  Rock 56 

Round  Tower  at  Newport      .........  57 

Alleged  Voyage  of  Madoc          ........  59 

Voyages  of  the  Zeni 60 

John  Vas  Cortereal 60 

Szkolney,  the  Pole 60 

Discovery  of  North  America  by  the  Cabots 60 

Voyage  of  Caspar  Cortereal 63 

Voyage  of  Verazzano        .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .  64 

Visita  of  Fishermen  and  Others     ........  65 

Gilbert's  Voyage,  and  Project  of  a  Settlement 67 

Further  Explorations    ..........  69 

Voyage  of  Gosnold    ..........  70 

Voyage  of  Pring            ..........  74 

Voyage  of  Waymouth        .........  75 

Danger  of  an  Occupation  of  New  England  by  the  French      .         .         .77 

Sir  Fcnlinando  Gorges      .........  78 

IncorjKiration  of  the  Virginia  Companies        ......  81 

Attempted  Settlement  on  the  Kennebec      ......  83 

Hudson's  Visit       ...........  85 

The  French  on  the  Penobscot    ........  85 

Captain  John  Smith       ..........  85 

Adventures  in  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa       .....  86 


CONTENTS. 


XXI 


Connection  with  the  London  Company 91 

Voyage  to  New  England    .         .         ,         .         .         .         .         .  92 

Map  of  New  England 94 

Later  Enterprises 94 

Early  Maps  embracing  the  Coast  of  New  England 95 

Kichard  Vines  at  Saco 98 

Thomas  Dermer  at  Plymouth 99 


CHAPTER   III. 


Puritanism  in  England. 

Free  Spirit  of  the  Early  English  Church 

Discontent  with  Ecclesiastical  Abuses   .... 

JohnWickliffe 

Religious  Policy  of  the  Lancastrian  Kings     . 

Beginning  of  the  Reformation  from  Popery 

Progress  of  the  Reformation  in  the  Reign  of  Edward  the  Sixth 

Question  of  Clerical  Costume 

Accession  of  Queen  Mary 

Her  cruel  Treatment  of  Protestants 

Accession  of  Queen  Elizabeth      ..... 

Act  of  Supremacy  and  Act  of  Uniformity 
The  Queen's  Sympathies  with  Romanism 
Proclamation  for  Conformity    ..... 

Accession  of  Archbishop  Grindal  .... 

Accession  of  Archbishop  Whitgift     .... 

His  severe  Proceedings        ..... 

Constitution  of  the  High-Commission  Court 

Rise  of  Separatism      ....... 

Robert  Brown  and  the  Brownists      .... 

Punishment  of  Separatists    ...... 

Character  of  the  Clergy  in  the  Reign  of  Elizabeth    . 
Emigration  of  Separatists  to  Holland   .... 

Accession  of  King  James  the  First     .... 

The  Millenary  Petition 

The  Conference  at  Hampton  Court 

Gloomy  Prospect  of  the  Reformers       .... 

Bancroft,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury 


101 
103 
103 
106 
108 
111 
112 
114 
116 
116 
117 
117 
119 
120 
120 
121 
121 
122 
123 
123 
125 
126 
126 
127 
129 
131 
132 


CHAPTER    IV. 


The  Founders  of  Plymouth  Colony. 

The  Congregation  at  Scrooby  in  Nottinghamshire      .         .         .         .  133 

Richard  Clifton  and  John  Robinson 134 

William  Brewster    .......•••  135 

William  Bradford 136 

Resolution  of  the  Scrooby  Congregation  to  emigrate  .         .         .  137 


Xxii  CONTENTS. 

Their  Rosidcme  at  Amsterdam 139 

Their  llemoval  to  Lejden 140 

Character  of  Robinson         .........  143 

Disorders  in  the  Netherlands 144 

Disturbances  at  Leyden 145 

Project  of  another  llemoval      ........  146 

Doubts  about  a  Place  of  Settlement 149 

Choice  of  North  Vi'trinia  ........  150 

Mission  of  Agents  t(  England 150 

The  Seven  Articles  of  the  Leyden  Church 150 

Negotiation  in  London 151 

Dissensions  in  the  Virginia  Company 152 

Patent  from  the  Virginia  Company 153 

Contract  of  llobinson's  Congregation  with  Merchants  of  London         .  153 

Preparations  for  Departure  from  Holland 155 

Embarkation  from  Delft- Haven  in  the  Speedwell         .         .         .         .  156 

Arrival  at  Southampton  .         .         . 158 

Sailing  of  the  Speedwell  and  the  Mayflower  from  Southampton  .  159 

Failure  of  the  Speedwell,  and  Return  of  the  Vessels     ....  169 

Final  Departure  of  the  Mayflower 159 

Origin  of  Some  of  the  Passengers  in  the  Mayflower      ....  160 


CHAPTER    V. 

Colony  of  Plymouth. 

The  Mayflower  at  Cape  Cod 164 

.^  Compact  for  Government    .........  165 

Carver  chosen  Ciovernor           .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .  167 

First  Exploration  of  the  Country         .         .         .         .         .         .         .167 

Exposures  of  the  second  Week 168 

Second  Exploration  of  the  Country       .......  168 

Thin]  Expedition  for  Discovery          ,         .         .         .         .          .          .  170 

Landing  of  a  Boat's  Crew  at  Plymouth 171 

Arrival  of  the  whole  Company  at  Plymouth 172 

Christmas 173 

First  Operations  at  Plymouth     .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .  1 73 

Fatal  Sickness 174 

AVelcome  from  Samoset 1 76 

Visit  from  other  Natives  .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .177 

Visit  from,  and  Treaty  with,  Massasoit 178 

Organization,  Military  and  Civil 179 

Return  of  the  Mayflower  to  England 180 

Death  of  Carver 180 

Enij)loyment.s  and  Condition  of  the  Settlers  during  the  first  Summer  .  181 

Visit  to  Massasf)it 183 

Voyage  to  Nauset 184 

Journey  to  Namasket 185 

Submission  of  nine  Sachems 185 


CONTENTS. 


XXUl 


Voj'age  to  Boston  Bay 185 

Improved  Prospects 186 

Arrival  of  the  Fortune 187 

Character  of  the  Colonists 187 

Feuds  in,  and  Ill-Suc(fess  of,  the  London  Company         .         .         .        .190 

Incorporation  of  the  Council  for  New  England 192 

Existing  Portions  of  its  Records    .         ,         .         .  ...     193 

Patent  from  the  Council  for  New  England  .        . ->^    .        ,        .         194 

Return  of  the  Fortune  to  England       .         .         .         .^       .         .         .194 
Cushman's  Prophecy        .........         195 

Scarcity  of  Food '        .         .         .     196 

Threats  of  War  from  the  Narragansetts    .         .        .        .         .        .        196 


CHAPTER    VI. 


A 


Renewed  Scarcity  of  Food      .... 

Weston's  Plantation  at  Wessagusset 

Second  Visit  of  Winslow  to  Massasoit 

Conspiracy  of  Indians  ..... 

Dispersion  of  Weston's  Company 

Weston  at  Plymouth 

-j^Perplexities  of  the  Council  for  New  England    . 

Further  Attempts  at  Colonization 

Project  for  a  General  Governor  of  New  England 

Proceedings  in  Parliament  ..... 

The  Plymouth  Patent  in  Danger 

Continued  Scarcity      ...... 

Arrival  of  the  Ann  and  the  Little  James  . 

New  Description  of  Settlers         .... 
'—Plentiful  Harvest  of  the  third  Year  . 

Allotments  of  Land     ...... 

Arrival  of  Edward  Winslow  from  England 

Faction  among  the  Merchant  Adventurers    . 

Faction  at  Plymouth         ..... 
K^onviction  of  Lyford  and  Oldham 
^'Dissolution  of  the  Partnership  of  Adventurers  . 

Transactions  at  Mount  Wollaston  and  at  Cape  Ann 

Prosperous  Condition  of  Plymouth    . 

Death  of  Robinson  and  of  Cushman 

Visit  of  De  Rasieres  to  Plymouth 

Release  from  the  Merchant  Adventurers 

Distribution  of  Stock  and  Land 

The  Trade  of  Plymouth  farmed  by  eight  Colonists 
'  Proceedings  at  Merry  Mount   .... 

English  Planters  in  and  about  Massachusetts  Bay 
Neighboring  Colonies  of  France  and  Holland. 

New  France 

New  Netherland 


198 
199 
201 
201 
203 
203 
204 
204 
206 
209 
209 
211 
212 
212 
213 
215 
215 
216 
219 
221 
221 
222 
223 
224 
226 
227 
228 
230 
232 
233 

234 
235 


XXIV 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

PuRiTAx  Politics  m  England,  ' 

Rise  of  the  Conflict  between  Arbitrary  and  Popular  Principles 
Its  Relations  in  England  to  Religion  .... 

Its  Progress  in  the  Reign  of  James  the  First 
Loyalty  of  the  Non-conformists         .... 
Restless  State  of  Public  Feeling  in  England 
Conduct  of  James  at  his  Accession  .... 
Proceedings  of  his  First  Parliament  at  its  First  Session 
Second  Session  of  King  James's  First  Parliament 

Third  Session . 

Fourth  Session         ....... 

Fifth  Session 

Parliament  dissolved   ....... 

State  of  Opinion  among  the  Courtiers  and  the  Lawyers 
High-Prerogative  Doctrines  of  the  Church 
Imposition  of  Illegal  Duties  on  Imports 

Discontinuance  of  Parliaments 

Expedients  to  obtain  a  Revenue     ..... 
Proceedings  of  King  James's  Second  Parliament 
Surrender  of  the  Dutch  Cautionary  Towns    . 

Death  of  Archbishop  Bancroft; 

Lenity  and  Puritanical  Tendencies  of  Archbishop  Abbot 

Foreign  Relations  of  England 

King  James's  Third  Parliament 

Proceedings  against  Monopolies 

Impeachment  of  Lord  St.  Albans  .... 

Increase  of  Dissension  between  the  King  and  the  Parliament 

Protestation  of  the  House  of  Commons 

Dissolution  of  the  Third  Parliament 

King  James's  Fourth  Pariiament 

Death  of  King  James       .... 

Progress  of  Popular  Principles  in  his  Reign 

Influence  of  Bishop  Williams  in  tlie  Church 

Accession  of  King  Charles  the  First 

His  First  Parliament 

Its  Patriotic  Policy 

Its  Dissolution  .... 

King  Charles's  Second  Parliament 

Its  Dissolution 

War  wiih  France 

Expedients  for  a  Revenue 

Bishop  Laud        .... 

King  Chario's  Thlnl  Parliament 

lis  Courageous  Tone   . 

Petition  of  Right     . 

Murder  of  the  Duke  of  Buckingham 

Wentworth,  Eari  of  Strafl[brd 


CONTENTS.  XXV 

Advancement  of  Laud        .         .         .     " 272 

Disuse  of  Parliaments  for  eleven  Years     ......         273 

Full  Development  of  the  Puritan  System     .         .         .         .         .         .274 

Use  of  Scripture  by  the  Puritans      .         .         .         .         .         .         .         274 

Their  Morality 276 

Their  public  Action .277 

Their  Habits  and  Manners 278 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

Colony  of  Massachusetts. 

Position  of  Puritans  in  the  Church 283 

The  Reverend  Mr.  White 284 

The  Dorchester  Adventurers 284 

Plantation  at  Cape  Ann 285 

Removal  to  Naumkeag     .........  286 

Grant  of  Massachusetts  from  the  Council  for  New  England   .         .         .  288 

John  Endicott's  Company  at  Salem  .......  289 

Charter  of  the  Governor  and  Company  of  Massachusetts  Bay        .         .  290 

Organization  of  the  Colony  at  Salem 292 

Instructions  from  the  ]\Iassachusetts  Company 292 

New  Emigration  to  Salem         ........  293 

Samuel  Skelton  and  Francis  Higginson 295 

Ecclesiastical  Organization 295. 

Expulsion  of  two  Malecontents 298 

Anti-episcopal  Policy  at  Salem 299 

Proposal  to  carry  the  Massachusetts  Charter  to  New  England       .         .  301 

Agreement  at  Cambridge  in  England 302 

New  Officers  of  the  Company  of  Massachusetts  Bay     ....  303 

Position  and  Character  of  its  Members 304 

Right  of  the  Company  to  convey  its  Charter  to  America         .         .         .  306 

Public-spirited  and  comprehensive  Designs  of  the  Company        .        .  308 
Arrangement  of  Financial  Affairs           .         .        .        .         .         .         .310 

Departure  of  Winthrop's  Company 312 

Their  "Humble  Request" 312 

Their  Voyage 312 

Their  Arrival  at  Salem 313 

Sickness  and  Want    ..........  315 

Examination  of  the  Country 316 

Ecclesiastical  Settlement 316 

Courts  of  Assistants      .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .        .317 

General  Court  in  Boston 321 

Adoption  of  new  Rules  for  Election  and  Legislation      ....  322 

Settlements  about  Boston  Bay  .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .  323 

Sickness  and  Famine           .........  324 

Renewal  of  Courts  of  Assistants       .         .         ,         .         .         .         .  325 

Visit  of  Chickatabot 328 

Embassy  from  Natives  on  Connecticut  River 328 

VOL.  I.  C 


XXVI 


CONTENTS. 


Return  to  England  of  some  of  the  Emigrants 
Sir  Christopher  Gardiner  .... 


329 

329 


CHAPTER    IX. 

Colony  of  Plymouth. 

Renewed  Emigration  from  Leyden  .  .  .  , 
^Third  Patent  of  Plymouth         ..... 

Further  Emigration  from  Leyden 

An  Execution  for  Murder  ..... 

Increase  of  Wealth  at  Plymouth  .... 

Visit  of  Winthrop  and  Wilson  to  Plymouth 

Duxbury  and  Marshfield       ..... 

Epidemic  Sickness    ....... 

The  French  on  the  Penobscot        .... 

Affray  on  the  Kennebec  ...... 

Plymouth  Factory  on  the  Connecticut 

Early  Legislation  at  Plymouth  .... 

Taxation  at  Plymouth  ...... 

Colony  of  Massachusetts. 

Religious  Qualification  for  the  Franchise   . 

Winthrop  and  Dudley  re-elected   .... 

Virtual  Permanency  of  the  Office  of  Assistant   . 

Difference  between  Winthrop  and  Dudley 

Religious  Dispute  at  Watertown         .... 

Further  Proceedings  of  the  Assistants  .         .         .         , 

The  Towns  taxed  by  the  Assistants  .... 

Disf.ontent  at  Watertown      ..... 

The  Freemen  resume  the  Right  of  Election,  and  appoint  Deputi 

Winthrop  refuses  to  receive  Presents     .... 

Arrivals  from  England     ...... 

Reconciliation  between  Winthrop  and  Dudley 

Division  of  the  Boston  Church  .... 

Town  of  Boston 

Visit  of  a  Narragansett  Sachem        .... 

Alarm  from  the  Indians        ...... 

Scarcity  of  Food 

Preparations  against  the  French    ..... 

The  Colony  called  in  Question  before  the  Privy  Council 

Re-election  of  Magistrates     ...... 

Renewal  of  the  Emigration      ..... 

John  Cotton  ........ 

Exj)editions  to  the  Connecticut  .... 

Renewal  of  Complaints  at  the  English  Court 

Reform  of  the  Covcrnment  of  Massachusetts     . 

Decline  of  Winthrop's  Popularity  .... 

Prweedings  of  the  Fifth  General  Court     . 

Freeman's  Oath    ........ 

Winthro[)'s  Loss  of  Favor  in  Boston 

Beginning  of  Town  Organizations         .... 


CONTENTS. 


XXVll 


CHAPTER    X. 

Condition  of  the  Settlers  in  Massachusetts         .... 

Freemen,  Magistrates,  and  Clergy 

Material  Prosperity  of  England  at  the  Time  of  the  Emigration 

Independent  Action  a  Necessity  for  the  Colonists 

Political  Rights  of  the  Freemen  of  Massachusetts 

Important  Intelligence  from  England    ...... 

Proposals  for  an  Aristocratic  Order  ..... 

Colonial  Commission  and  Recall  of  the  Charter    .... 

Policy  of  the  King  in  relation  to  Massachusetts 

Proceedings  of  the  General  Court 

Patents  issued  by  the  Council  for  New  England 

Dissolution  of  the  Council  for  New  England  .... 

Writ  of  quo    warranto  against  the  Company  of  Massachusetts  Bay 

Roger  Williams 

His  Banishment  ......... 

Providence  founded 


383 

384 
385 
386 
387 
389 
389 
391 
391 
394 
397 
397 
402 
406 
412 
422 


CHAPTER  XI. 


Mutilation  of  the  English  Flag 426 

Israel  Stoughton 427 

John  Haynes  chosen  Governor  and  Richard  Bellingham  Deputy-Governor  428 

Elections  by  Ballot 429 

Proceedings  in  respect  to  the  Flag  of  England 430 

Legislative  Proceedings 431 

Formation  of  Churches 432 

Functions  of  Towns 434 

Winthrop  the  younger 435 

Henry  Vane 435 

Hugh  Peter 436 

Conference  of  the  Leaders  in  Massachusetts 437 

Vane  chosen  Governor    .........  439 

Further  Proceedings  in  respect  to  the  English  Flag       .         .         .         .440 

Institution  of  a  Council  for  Life        .         .         .         .         .         .         .  441 

Proposal  for  a  Code  of  Laws        .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .442 

Military  Organization       .........  443 

Colony  of  Connecticut. 

Scheme  of  an  Emigration  to  Connecticut 444 

Samuel  Stone  and  Thomas  Hooker  .         .         .         .         .         .         .  445 

Alleged  ^lotives  for  Emigration  to  Connecticut      .....  445 

Reasons  against  it      .         .         .         .......  447 

Question  respecting  a  Veto  Power  of  the  Magistre^tes     ....  448 

Emigration  to  Connecticut           . •  450 

Foundation  of  Saybrook 451 

Sufferings  of  the  first  Settlers  of  Connecticut 452 

Renewed  Emigration  to  Connecticut 453 


XXVIU 


CONTENTS. 


Government  in  Connecticut  for  the  first  Year 

AVar  with  the  Pequots  .... 

Murder  of  Stone  and  Norton  . 

Murder  of  Oldham      ..... 

Expedition  against  the  Block-Islanders 

Expedition  against  the  Pequots     . 

Hostilities  of  the  Pequots 

Captain  John  Mason    ..... 

His  Movements  against  the  Pequots 

Assault  on  the  Pequot  Fort 

Return  of  Mason's  Expedition 

Conclusion  of  the  Pequot  War    . 


454 

456 
456 
457 
458 
460 
461 
463 
464 
465 
468 
469 


CHAPTER  XII, 


CoLOXT  OF  Massachusetts. 
Llrs.  Ann  Hutchinson  .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .472 

Antinomian  Controversy 474 

Interference  of  the  Ministers        .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .475 

Perplexity  of  Governor  Vane           .         .         .         .         .         .         .  475 

Censure  of  Wilson  by  his  Church 477 

Appointment  of  a  Fast 477 

Increase  of  the  Excitement 478 

Censure  of  Wheelwright  by  the  General  Court  for  his  Fast  Sermon  .  478 

Disaffection  of  Boston ,  480 

General  Court  of  Elections  held  at  Newtown 480 

Winthrop  again  chosen  Governor         .......  481 

Resentment  of  Vane 482 

Vane's  Return  to  England 483 

Ecclesiastical  Synod  at  Newtown 484 

Proceedings  against  the  Partisans  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson    ....  485 

Proceedings  against  Mrs.  Hutchinson 486 

Political  Necessity  for  the  Proceedings  against  the  Antinomian  Party     .  489 

Obstruction  of  Emigration  from  England           .....  502 

INIixed  j^Iotives  of  the  victorious  Party  in  the  Antinomian  Controversy  .  505 

Their  Moderation .  506 

Their  inadequate  Defence  of  Tliemselves       ......  508 

Beneficial  Results  of  their  Course 509 

Praiseworthy  Course  of  Winthrop         .         .         .         .         •         .         .510 

Rhodk  Island. 

Settlement  on  the  Island  of  Aquetnet  (Rhode  Island)         .        .         .  511 

Dis.sensions  at  Aquetnet 512 

Northern  Settlements. 

Exeter 516 

Hampton      .         .         .         .         .         .         ,         .         .         .         .         .516 

Dover 517 


CONTENTS.  xxix 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

NORTHEASTERX   SETTLEMENTS. 

Plantation  at  the  Mouth  of  the  Piscataqua    .         .         .         .         .         .522 

Slow  Progress  of  Settlement  further  east 523 

Province  of  Maine 525 

Agamenticus  and  Saco     .........  527 

Southwestern  Settlements. 

Theophilus  Eaton 528 

John  Davenport 528 

Emigration  to  Quinnipiack  (New  Haven)     .        .         .         .        .         .529 

Plantation  Covenant         .         .         .         .         .         .        .        .         .  529 

Organization  of  a  Government 531 

Settlement  of  Milford 534 

Settlement  of  Guilford 534 

Colony  of  Connecticut. 

Frame  of  Government  in  Connecticut 535 

Election  of  Magistrates .        .         .537 

Early  Legislation .         .         .         .  537 

Fairfield  and  Stratford 538 

George  Fenwick  at  Saybrook           .......  539 

Colony  of  Plymouth. 

Plymouth  Factories  on  the  Penobscot,  Kennebec,  and  Connecticut         .  539 

Unsuccessful  Expedition  against  the  French  on  the  Penobscot   .         .  540 

Generous  Conduct  of  the  Plymouth  People  ......  541 

Winslow  in  England        .........  542 

Prosperity  of  Plymouth       .........  544 

Disappointments  in  Church  Affairs  .......  545 

Course  of  Civil  Administration 546 

Treaty  with  the  Indians  renewed 547 

Colony  of  Massachusetts. 

Institution  of  a  College 548 

John  Harvard 549 

The  Ancient  and  Honorable  Artillery  Company         .        .         .         .  551 

Progress  of  Organization,  Legislation,  and  Administration      .         .        .  551 

Restriction  of  the  Number  of  Deputies       ......  554 

Limitation  of  the  Power  of  the  Council  for  Life 555 

Second  Deposition  of  Governor  Winthrop,  and  Election  of  Dudley    .  555 

Renewed  Demand  from  England  for  the  Charter 556 

Winthrop's  Reply  to  the  Recall  of  the  Charter 557 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

Puritan  Politics  in  England. 

Despotism  of  Charles  the  First 560 

Exaction  of  Ship-Money 561 

Archbishop  Laud 562 

Outbreak  at  Edinburgh 565 


XXX  CONTENTS. 

Spread  of  the  Insurrection  in  Scotland 567 

Advance  of  the  King  with  an  Army  to  Scotland          ....  568 

Proceedings  of  the  Scottish  Parliament  and  Assembly    ....  569 

King  Charles's  Fourth  Parliament 569 

Its  Dissolution 570 

The  Royal  Army  beaten  by  the  Scots 571 

Council  of  Peers 571 

Truce  with  the  Scots 571 

King  Charles's  Fifth  Parliament 571 

Its  first  Measures  of  Reform 572 

Prorogation  of  Parliament 573 

Irish  Rebellion 573 

Grand  Remonstrance      .        .         .         .        .        .        .         .         .        .674 

Revival  of  Loyal  Sentiments 574 

The  lung's  Attempt  to  arrest  Members  of  the  House  of  Commons          .  575 

Procession  of  the  House  of  Commons  to  Westminster          .         .         .  576 

Bill  to  give  Parliament  the  Control  of  the  Militia 576 

The  King's  Resolution  to  resist    .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .  577 

Beginning  of  the  Civil  War 577 

Influence  of  these  Events  on  New-England  Politics    .         .        .         .  579 

New-England  Ministers  invited  to  the  Westminster  Assembly  of  Divines  581 

Mission  of  Massachusetts  Men  to  England 582 

Discontinuance  of  Emigration  from  England 584 

Return  of  Emigrants  to  England    ........  585 

Colony  of  Massachusetts. 

Claim  of  Massachusetts  to  Territory  at  the  North       ....  587 

Disorders  in  New  Hampshire 588 

Thomas  Larkham 589 

Accession  of  the  New-Hampshire  Settlements  to  Massachusetts      .         .  592 

Annexation  of  Pejepscott  (Brunswick) 593 

Remission  of  Wheelwright's  Sentence  of  Banishment     .        .        .        .594 

The  Plough  Patent 694 

Colony  ok  Plymouth. 

Boundary  Question  between  Massachusetts  and  Plymouth      .         .         .  596 

Conveyance  of  the  Patent  of  Plymouth  to  the  Freemen      .        .        •  697 

Settlement  with  the  London  Partners 597 

Death  of  Brewster 598 

His  Character 599 

Colony  of  New  Haven. 

Extension  and  Consolidation  of  New-Haven  Colony   ....  600 

Southhold,  Stamford,  and  Greenwich 601 

Colony  of  Connecticut. 

Magistrates  of  Connecticut 603 

Separation  of  Springfield  from  Connecticut 604 

Accession  of  Southampton  and  Saybrook  to  Connecticut        .        .         .  605 

The  Connecticut  Indians 605 

Rhode  Island  and  Providence. 

Pro<'eedings  on  Rhode  Island 606 

Rogir  Williams  in  England         ........  609 


CONTENTS. 


XXXI 


CHAPTER    XV. 

Colony  of  Massachusetts. 
Relief  Law  in  Massachusetts      ..... 

Government  of  1641- 1642 

Unsatisfactory  Administration  of  Bellingham 
Re-election  of  Governor  Wintbrop  in  1642  and  1643 
Omission  of  the  Oath  of  Allegiance    .... 
Renewal  of  the  Question  about  a  Council  for  Life 
Division  of  Massachusetts  into  Counties 
Division  of  the  Legislature  into  two  Branches 
The  homely  Occasion  of  it 

The  Confederacy. 

Alleged  Reasons  for  a  Confederation  of  the  Four  Colonies 
French,  Dutch,  and  Swedes  in  their  Neighborhood 
Preliminary  Movements  for  a  Confederation  . 
Change  of  the  Views  of  Massachusetts  in  relation  to  it 
Consummation  of  the  Measure        .... 
Exclusion  of  the  Maine  and  Narragansett  Settlers 
Twelve  Articles  of  Confederation  .... 
Parliamentary  Commission  for  Colonial  Govermnent  . 


610 
611 
611 
613 
614 
614 
617 
617 
618 

623 
624 
625 
627 
629 
629 
680 
633 


APPENDIX. 
List  of  New-England  Magistrates 


635 


BOOK   I. 


THE   SETTLEMENT. 


HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 


BOOK  I. 

THE    SETTLEMENT. 
CHAPTER    I. 


On  the  eastern  coast  of  North  America,  midway  be- 
tween the  equator  and  the  pole,  is  a  tract  of  land  prop- 
erly described  as  a  peninsula,  from  a  physical  conforma- 
tion which  has  had  important  relations  to  its  civil  history.^ 
The  northern  extremity  of  the  Appalachian  zone  of  ele- 
vated land  is  separated  from  the  continent  by  the  long 
bed  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  the  deep  and  broad  chasm 
which  holds  the  waters  of  Lake  Champlain,  Lake  George, 
and  the  river  Hudson.  The  series  of  ridges  and  plateaus, 
which,  rising  from  the  sandy  shore  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico, 
stretches  nearly  unbroken  in  a  direction  parallel  to  the 
Atlantic  coast,  is  suddenly  interrupted  and  cut  down  to 
its  base  by  a  valley  sunk  thousands  of  feet  between  the 
Katskill  Mountains  and  the  lofty  chains  and  table-lands  of 
the  Adirondac  region  on  one  side,  and  the  long  belt  of  the 
Green  Mountains  on  the  other.     The  average  width  of 

1  This  geographical  feature,  though  lyn,  New  England's  Rarities,  pp.  4,  5 ; 

imperfectly  understood,  was  not  over-  comp.   his   Voyages,    p.   42.)      Cush- 

looked  in  early  times.     "  New  England  man  (Discourse,  ad  init.^  and  Winslow 

is  by  some  affirmed  to  be  an  island,  (Good  Newes  from  New  England,  62), 

bounded  on  the  north  with  the  river  at  Plymouth  in  1621  and  1623,  believed 

Canada,  so  called  from  M.  Cane;  on  that  it  was  an  island ;  Wood,  in  Massa- 

the  south  with  the  river  Mohegan,   or  chusetts  in  1633,  that  it  was  an  island 

Hudson  River,  so  called  because  he  was  or  a  peninsula  (New  England's  Pros- 

the   first  that  discovered  it."     (Josse-  pect,  1). 

VOL.   I.  1 


2  HISTORY   OF   NEW  ENGLAND.  [T^ook  I. 

this  depression  is  not  far  from  twenty  miles.  At  the  north 
it  expands  into  a  broad  prairie  between  Lake  Champlain 
and  the  St.  Lawrence,  while  among  the  Highlands  near 
"West  Point  it  is  compressed  to  the  dimmished  width  of 
the  Hudson  where  that  river  seems  to  have  broken  a  link 
between  the  two  parts  of  the  Appalachian  chain. 

The  insulation  of  this  tract  is  all  but  complete.  The 
tide  runs  up  the  St.  Lawrence  nearly  five  hundred  miles, 
almost  reaching  the  point  where  the  river  Richelieu,  or 
Sorel,  discharges  the  surplus  waters  of  Lake  George  and 
Lake  Champlain.  The  surface  of  Lake  Champlain  is 
only  ninety  feet  above  the  ocean ;  the  canal  which  now 
unites  its  waters  with  those  of  Hudson  River  running  in 
an  opposite  direction,  scarcely  rises  fifty  more  to  its  high- 
est level;  and  at  Troy  and  Albany,  a  hundred  and  fifty 
miles  from  the  sea,  the  tide  is  met  again,  coming  up  from 
the  south.  Of  that  long  depression  of  nine  hundred  miles 
from  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Lawrence  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Hudson,  the  tide-waters  cover  six  hundred  and  fifty 
miles ;  while  for  the  remaining  two  hurfdred  and  fifty  the 
elevation  above  the  ocean  is  not  so  great  as  is  reached  by 
ordinary  structures  reared  by  the  hand  of  man.  A  level 
way  was  prepared  by  nature,  along  which  the  travel  and 
the  commerce  of  tranquil  times  have  at  length  succeeded 
to  the  incursions  of  savage  or  of  civilized  war. 

The  area  thus  defined  as  one  physical  region,  and  meas- 
uring with  the  neighboring  islands  about  a  hundred  and 
forty-five  thousand  square  miles,  is  occupied  by  the  Brit- 
ish Provinces  of  Nova  Scotia  and  New  Brunswick,  with 
part  of  that  of  Lower  Canada ;  the  six  States  of  the 
American  Union  known  by  the  collective  name  of  New 
I'.ngland  ;  and  a  narrow  section  of  the  State  of  New 
Arcs  of  New  York.  New  England,  covering  less  than  half  of 
E.,ciau.i.  ^j^-^  surface,  extends  from  the  forty-first  degree 
noarly  to  tlie  forty-eighth  degree  of  north  latitude,  and 
from  tlic  sixty-seventh  degree  almost  to  the  seventy-fourth 


Chap.  I.]  PHYSICAL  GEOGRAPHY.  3 

degree  of  west  longitude.  It  is  bounded  by  British  pos- 
sessions on  the  north,  northeast,  and  northwest;  on  the 
southeast,  east,  and  south,  by  the  Atlantic  Ocean ;  and  on 
the  west,  by  Lake  Champlain  and  by  the  State  of  New 
York,  which  through  nearly  three  degrees  of  latitude 
interposes  a  breadth  of  some  twenty  miles,  mostly  of  low- 
land, between  it  and  Hudson  River.  It  has  an  area  of 
about  65,000  square  miles,  of  which  about  31,700  belong 
to  the  State  of  Maine,  9,300  to  New  Hampshire,  10,200 
to  Vermont,  7,800  to  Massachusetts,  1,300  to  Rhode 
Island,  and  4,700  to  Connecticut.  Maine  occupies  the 
northeastern  corner.  West  of  the  southern  half  of  Maine 
lie  New  Hampshire,  touching  the  ocean  for  only  a  few 
miles,  and  the  inland  State  of  Vermont.  South  of  New 
Hampshire  and  Vermont,  along  their  whole  extent,  is 
Massachusetts,  measuring  the  breadth  of  Southern  New 
England  from  east  to  west,  and  stretching  to  a  double 
width  on  the  sea,  which  it  fronts  with  its  entire  east- 
ern border.  South  of  Massachusetts  are  Rhode  Island, 
exposed  on  its  southern  side  to  the  Atlantic,  and  Con- 
necticut, lying  along  the  oval-shaped  strait  known  as 
Long  Island  Sound.  Long  Island,  with  its  low  plains 
and  sandy  beaches,  though  by  nature  attached  to  New 
England,  politically  belongs  elsewhere.  The  sea-coast, 
measured  without  allowance  for  interruption  by  the  less 
considerable  inlets,  extends  about  seven  hundred  miles. 

Only  moderate  elevations  present  themselves  to  the 
view  along  the  greater  part  of  the  line  of  the  New-Eng- 
land coast.  Inland,  the  great  topographical  feature  is  a 
double  belt  of  highlands,  separated  almost  to  their  Ranges  of 
bases  by  the  deep  and  broad  valley  of  Connecti-  '''s*''*'"^^- 
cut  River,  and  running  parallel  to  each  other  from  the 
south-southwest  to  the  north-northeast,  till,  around  the 
sources  of  that  river,  they  unite  in  a  wide  space  of  table- 
land, from  which  streams  descend  in  different  directions. 
Thence,  separating  again,  they  take  a  northeasterly  course 


4  HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

through  the  State  of  Maine  and  the  Province  of  New 
Brunswick,  till  they  come  out  upon  the  Gulf  of  St.  Law- 
rence along  both  sides  of  the  deep  Bay  of  Chalcurs, 
which  may  be  considered  as  the  lower  extremity  of  the 
long  depression.  At  the  foot  of  the  eastern  belt  |Rnd 
following  its  curve  lies  a  tract  of  lowland,  gently  sloping 
towards  the  shore  with  a  surface  broken  by  moderate  ele- 
'sations,  and  from  being  forty  or  fifty  miles  broad  in  Mas- 
sachusetts, gradually  spreading  in  Maine  to  nearly  double 
that  width.  In  Connecticut,  the  descent  to  the  sea  is  by 
still  easier  steps. 

To  regard  these  highlands,  which  form  so  important  a 
feature  of  New  England  geography,  as  simply  two  ranges 
of  hills,  would  not  be  to  conceive  of  them  correctly. 
They  are  vast  swells  of  land,  of  an  average  elevation  of 
a  thousand  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea,  each  with  a 
width  of  forty  or  fifty  miles,  from  which,  as  from  a  base, 
mountains  rise  in  chains  or  in  isolated  groups  to  an  alti- 
tude of  several  thousand  feet  more. 

In  structure,  the  two  belts  are  unlike.  The  western 
system,  which  bears  the  general  name  of  the  Green  Moun- 
tains, is  composed  of  two  principal  chains,  more  or  less 
continuous,  covered,  like  several  shorter  ones  which  run 
along  them,  with  the  forests  and  herbage  to  which  they 
owe  their  name.  Between  these  a  longitudinal  valley  can 
be  traced,  though  with  some  interruption,  from  Connecti- 
cut to  Northern  Vermont.  In  Massachusetts  and  Con- 
necticut it  is  marked  by  the  course  of  the  Ilousatonic, 
in  Vermont  by  the  rich  basins  that  hold  the  villages  of 
Bennington,  Manchester,  and  Rutland,  and  further  on  by 
valleys  of  less  note.  The  space  between  these  mountain 
ranges  and  the  Connecticut  is  mostly  occupied  by  a  rugged 
table-land  measuring  in  height  from  a  thousand  to  fifteen 
hundred  feet.  In  Massachusetts,  this  is  deeply  furrowed 
by  transverse  valleys,  through  which  torrents  like  the 
Westfield  and   the   Deerfield  rivers  descend  to  the   Con- 


Chap.  I.]  PHYSICAL  GEOGRAPHY.  5 

necticut.     In  Vermont,  both  heights  and  streams  assume 
a  more  gentle  character. 

The  mountains  have  a  regular  increase  in  elevation 
from  south  to  north.     From  a  hei^jht  of  less  than  , 

'-'  Increase  m 

a  thousand  feet  in  Connecticut,  they  rise  to  an  tiie  height  of 

/»  n  ^  T         1    n  •        ~\  r  i  mountains, 

average  oi  twenty-nve  hundred  leet  m  Massachu-  towards  the 
setts,  where  the  majestic  Greylock,  isolated  be- 
tween the  two  chains,  lifts  its  head  to  the  stature  of  thirty- 
five  hundred  feet.  In  Vermont,  Equinox  and  Stratton 
Mountains,  near  Manchester,  are  thirty-seven  hundred  feet 
high ;  Killington  Peak,  near  Rutland,  rises  forty-two  hun- 
dred feet ;  Mansfield  Mountain,  at  the  northern  extremity, 
overtops  the  rest  of  the  Green  Mountain  range  with  an 
altitude  of  forty-four  hundred  feet.  The  rise  of  the  valley 
is  less  regular.  In  Connecticut,  its  bottom  is  from  five 
hundred  to  seven  hundred  feet  above  the  sea;  in  South- 
ern Massachusetts  it  is  eight  hundred  feet ;  it  rises  thence 
two  hundred  feet  to  Pittsfield,  and  one  hundred  more  to 
the  foot  of  Greylock,  whence  it  declines  to  the  bed  of  the 
Housatonic  in  one  direction,  and  to  an  average  height  of 
little  more  than  five  hundred  feet  in  Vermont,  in  the 
other.  Thus  it  is  in  Berkshire  County,  in  Western  Mas- 
sachusetts, that  the  western  swell  presents,  if  not  the 
most  elevated  peaks,  yet  the  most  compact  and  consoli- 
dated structure.  Nowhere  else  in  New  England  has  the 
locomotive  engine  to  climb  to  such  a  height  in  order  to 
reach  the  valley  of  the  Hudson.  Between  Westfield  and 
Pittsfield,  the  Western  Railway  attains  an  elevation  of  no 
less  than  fourteen  hundred  and  seventy-five  feet  above 
the  surface  of  the  water  in  Boston  harbor. 

The  eastern  belt  has  no  continuous  range  of  mountains. 
In  Massachusetts,  it  is  a  broad,  undulating  surface,  about 
a  thousand  feet  high,  broken  by  valleys  of  moderate 
depth.  Numerous  smooth  and  bare  summits,  like  the 
crests  of  parallel  waves,  lift  a  space  of  arable  land  a  few 

hundred  feet  above  the  general  level.     Here  and  there, 

1* 


6  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

however,  are  isolated  hills,  like  Watatick,  near  the  centre 
of  the  plateau,  and  Wachusett,  on  its  eastern  edge,  with 
altitudes  respectively  of  eighteen  hundred  and  over  two 
thousand  feet.  In  New  Hampshire,  the  same  general 
character  is  preserved,  but  the  country  is  more  broken, 
and  the  mountains  grow  higher  and  more  numerous. 
On  a  line  running,  a  little  west  of  the  centre,  along  an 
ascending  series  of  peaks  having  no  immediate  connec- 
tion with  each  other,  the  Great  Monadnock,  Cuba  Moun- 
tain, Carr  INIountain,  and  Mooschillock,  respectively  thirty- 
two  hundred,  thirty-three  hundred,  thirty-five  hundred, 
and  forty-eight  hundred  feet  high,  conduct  to  Lafayette 
Mountain,  which  measures  fifty-three  hundred  feet.  Be- 
yond this  begins  the  group  of  the  White  Mountains,  sep- 
arate like  the  rest,  and  in  its  highest  peak.  Mount  Wash- 
ington, with  an  elevation  of  sixty-three  hundred  feet,  pre- 
senting the  culminating  point  of  the  northern  section  of 
the  Appalachian  range.  The  regular  increase  of  elevation 
from  south  to  north,  which  characterizes  the  Green  Moun- 
tain range,  appears  equally  in  the  more  easterly  system, 
and  the  extreme  heights  of  the  two  are  in  nearly  the  same 
parallel  of  latitude. 

Beyond  the  White  Mountains,  while  the  peaks  are 
lower,  the  table-land  continues  to  rise,  till  it  reaches  an 
elevation  varying  from  twelve  hundred  to  fifteen  hundred 
feet.  In  Maine,  the  swell  expands  and  sinks,  though  not 
enough  to  lose  its  importance  as  the  principal  water- 
shed. Along  its  path  are  scattered  the  few  high  moun- 
tains of  Maine,  as  Mount  Abraham,  Mount  Squaw,  and 
Katahdin,  which  last  is  said  to  have  an  altitude  of  more 
than  fifty-three  hundred  feet. 

Such  are  the  great  geographical  features  which  deter- 
mine the  direction  of  the  water-courses,  the  amount  and 
distribution  of  water  power,  and  the  capacities  of  difterent 
parts  of  the  country  for  various  forms  of  the  industry 
of  civilized  man,  in  agriculture,  commerce,  and  the  man- 


CuAP.  I.]  PHYSICAL  GEOGRAPHY.  7 

ufactiiring  arts.  They  materially  influenced  the  early 
march  of  the  settlements,  and  the  establishment  of  the 
political  centres. 

The  region  along  the  northern  border  of  Vermont,  New 
Hampshire,  and  Maine,  where  the  two  belts  of  ^ 

i  •"  '  Source  and 

highlands  meet  in  a  common  table-land,  supplies  direction  of 

^"^  ot  rivers* 

the  springs  of  all  the  important  streams  of  the 
peninsular  country  which  has  been  described.  The  Con- 
necticut and  the  Androscoggin  seeking  the  ocean  by  a 
southerly  course,  the  feeders  of  the  Kennebec  and  the 
Penobscot  running  towards  the  east  and  southeast,  those 
of  the  St.  John  towards  the  northeast,  and  those  of  the 
Chaudiere  and  the  St.  Francis  towards  the  northwest,  all 
descend  from  these  heights  by  rapid  plunges  into  the 
lower  country.  With  their  valleys  they  take  directions 
and  characters  according  with  those  of  the  slopes  to 
which  they  respectively  belong.  In  New  England,  they 
thus  arrange  themselves  in  a  threefold  division. 

To  the  general  descent  of  the  country  from  north  to 
south  corresponds  the  course  of  the  Connecti-  ^^^  p„„. 
cut  River.  Its  wide  and  deep  valley  separates  "•^'^"'="'- 
not  only  two  mountain  ridges,  but  two  solid  masses  of 
highland.  A  series  of  terraces  breaks  the  level  of  its 
broad  bed.  Rarely  presenting  any  sudden  changes  of  di- 
rection, it  obeys  the  nearly  straight  course  of  the  parallel 
walls  which  confine  its  valley.  Its  most  rapid  descent  is 
that  of  twelve  hundred  feet  in  the  first  quarter  of  its 
course,  from  its  sources  to  the  mouth  of  the  Pasumpsic 
River,  on  the  parallel  of  the  White  Mountains,  where 
its  surface  is  but  four  hundred  feet  above  the  sea  two 
hundred  miles  distant.  In  eighty  miles,  from  that  point 
to  the  long  and  flat  bottom  between  Windsor  and  Bel- 
lows Falls  in  Vermont,  it  descends  only  one  hundred 
feet ;  thence  it  sinks  a  hundred  and  sixty  feet  to  the 
plains  of  Deerfield ;  and  at  Springfield,  eighty  miles  from 
its  mouth,   it  is  but  forty  feet  above  the   ocean.      The 


8  HISTORY   OF  NEW   ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

smaller  streams  on  the  same  slope,  the  Housatonic,  the 
Naugatuck,  and  others,  pursue  in  like  manner  the 
straight  course  forced  upon  them  by  the  direction  of  the 
ridges  which  come  out  in  the  plains  that  stretch  along 
the  Sound. 

Under  the  combined  influence  of  the  eastern  and  the 
The  eastern  southem  slopcs,  the  Audroscoggiu,  the  Saco,  the 
rivers.  Merrimack,  the  Blackstone,  and  other  streams, 
tend  in  an  oblique  direction  towards  the  southeast.  In 
Maine,  where  the  highlands  turn  to  the  northeast,  the 
compound  declivity  becomes  a  southerly  slope,  and  the 
Kennebec,  the  Penobscot,  and  the  Passamaquoddy  seek 
the  sea  in  that  direction.  Unlike  the  streams  further 
south  which  hold  the  same  course,  those  of  Maine  show 
considerable  irregularity  at  diflerent  points  in  their 
progress.  Not  rolling  their  waters  through  a  single 
great  hollow,  like  the  Connecticut,  they  rather  stray 
from  valley  to  valley,  alternately  following  and  breaking 
through  the  ridges  which  obstruct  them,  and  indicat- 
ing, by  their  frequent  windings,  the  minor  sinuosities  of 
the  ground  they  traverse.  Their  fall  is  also  generally 
more  precipitous.  Where  they  issue  from  the  highlands, 
at  only  a  moderate  distance  from  the  ocean,  their  aver- 
age elevation  above  it,  in  Massachusetts  and  New  Hamp- 
shire, is  five  hundred  feet.  Their  rapids  and  shallows 
accordingly  unfit  them  for  inland  navigation.  Towards 
the  east  their  size  increases  with  the  width  of  the  belt  of 
lowland  in  wliich  their  course  is  developed. 

The  western  declivity,  fronting  the  valley  of  the  Hud- 
Thcwesten.  SOU  aud  of  Lake  Cham  plain,  is  too  short  to  allow 
nvcrn.  ^.j^^    formatlou    of  any    considerable    river.      To- 

ward the  south,  little  im])etuous  torrents,  like  the  Hoo- 
sac,  break  throufj^h  tlie  hills  into  the  Hudson.  In  Ver- 
mont, Otter  Creek,  Onion  Iliver,  and  other  streams,  take 
a  longer  and  more  tranquil  way  towards  Lake  Cham- 
plain.     Outside  of  New  England,  at  the  north,  the  Ca- 


Chap.  I.]  PHYSICAL  GEOGRAPHY.  9 

naclian  rivers  St.  Francis  and  Chaudiere  carry  to  the  St. 
Lawrence  a  more  abundant  tribute.^ 

Almost  everywhere  in  New  England  the  masses  of  water 
find  a  sufficient  vent,  and  there  are  within  its  bor- 

•  T  Lakes. 

ders  few  lakes  of  any  great  size.  The  largest, 
Moosehead  Lake  in  INIaine,  partly  drained  by  the  Kenne- 
bec, and  Lake  Winnipiseogee  in  New  Hampshire,  which 
yields  some  of  its  waters  to  the  Merrimac,  are  respectively 
about  twenty-five  and  thirty-five  miles  long,  and  each 
is  about  ten  miles  across  in  its  greatest  width. 

It  will  have  been  seen  that  the  rivers  of  New  England, 
though  several  are  of  considerable  length,  are  of  little  di- 
rect use  for  internal  commerce.  The  broad  Connecticut 
is  navigable  for  vessels  of  a  hundred  tons'  burden  only  as 
far  as  Hartford,  fifty  miles  above  its  mouth.  The  Charles 
and  the  Merrimac  admit  shipping,  the  former  no  further 
than  seven  miles,  and  the  latter  fifteen  miles,  from  the  east- 
ern coast.  The  best  water  communications  with  the  in- 
terior are  in  Maine.  Heavy  ships  discharge  their  freights 
at  Bangor,  fifty  or  sixty  miles  from  the  mouth  of  the 
Penobscot ;  on  the  Kennebec,  vessels  of  light  draught 
ascend  forty-five  miles  from  the  sea,  to  Augusta;  while 
sloops  or  boats  ply  over  long  reaches  of  the  Androscog- 
gin, the  Saco,  the  Piscataqua,  and  other  rivers,  where  the 
surface  is  not  broken  by  falls  or  rapids. 

But  the  rivers  of  New  England  have  rendered  excel- 
lent service  to  its  civilized  inhabitants,  independent  of 
their  liberal  contributions  of  clear  and  wholesome  water 
at  all  times,  and  of  necessary  food  in  the  period  of  distress 
which  immediately  followed  the  immigration  of  English- 


1  In  the  above  delineation  of  the  that  distinguished  geographer  has  kind- 
physical  geography  of  New  England,  ly  communicated  to  me  for  this  purpose. 
I  have  made  free  use  of  a  manuscript  I  believe  it  is  Mr.  Guyot's  intention  to 
memoir  by  Professor  Guyot,  of  Nassau  prepare  it  for  publication  in  the  ]\Ie- 
Hall,  in  New  Jersey,  containing  the  moirs  of  the  American  Academy  of 
results  of  original  observations,  which  Arts  and  Sciences. 


10  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  L 

men.  It  is  cliiefly  within  the  last  forty  years  that  prof- 
itable use  has  been  made  of  the  abundant  facilities  of 
water-power  for  factories  ;  but  from  the  beginning  the 
prosperity  and  wealth  of  the  English  settlers  were  largely 
dependent  upon  those  secure  and  capacious  basins,  at  the 
outlets  of  some  of  the  rivers,  which  are  now  resorts  of 
the    commerce   of  the   world.      The   harbors  of 

Harbors.  !-»-'■  -i  i 

Portland,  Boston,  and  jNewport,  accessible,  am- 
ple, deep,  with  con^•enient  landing-places  sheltered  from 
storms  and  defensible  against  an  enemy,  leave  nothing  to 
be  desired  for  commercial  accommodation.  Portsmouth, 
Salem,  Bristol,  Providence,  New  London,  New  Haven, 
were  in  early  times  the  starting-places  of  a  vigorous  mari- 
time enterprise ;  while  an  endless  number  of  such  com- 
modious havens  as  Eastport,  Machias,  Castine,  Belfast, 
Thomaston,  Wiscasset,  Bath,  and  Kennebunk,  m  Maine, 
with  the  long  ranges  of  fishing-towns  on  Massachusetts 
Bay,  Buzzard's  Bay,  and  Long  Island  Sound,  stud  the 
coast  from  New  Brunswick  to  New  York. 

The  shore  is  indented  by  numerous  estuaries  of  greater 
extent.     To  regard  that  part  of  the  ocean  which 

Bays.  ^  ^ 

bears  the  name  of  Massachusetts  Bay  as  being 
enclosed  within  two  promontories  so  distant  from  each 
other  as  Cape  Ann  and  Cape  Cod,  requires  some  aid 
from  the  imagination.  But  spacious  inlets  like  Narra- 
gansett  Bay  in  Rhode  Island,  Buzzard's  Bay  in  Massa- 
chusetts, Passamaquoddy,  Frenchman's,  Penobscot,  Sheep- 
scot,  and  Casco  Bays,  with  many  others  of  smaller  size,  in 
Maine,  impart  to  a  large  extent  of  coast  the  privileges  of 
proximity  to  the  sea,  along  witli  a  portion  of  the  retire- 
ment and  security  of  an  inland  site ;  while  their  capes 
push  out  the  mariner's  dwelling  towards  the  scene  of  his 
toils. 

The  atmospheric  temperature  in  New  England  is  va- 
Tempera-  viablc,  uiid  licat  aud  cold  are  both  in  extreme. 
*""•  U'lic  mercury  has  ranged  in  Maine  from   98°  of 


1817, 
,22. 


Chap.  L]  METEOROLOGY,  CLIMATE,  AND   SOIL.  11 

Fahrenheit's  thermometer  in  summer  to  34°  be       ,815. 
low  zero  in  winter.     In  Massachusetts  and  Con-    -f*"^!- 
necticut  its  common  annual  limits  are  98^  above  zero,  and 
15°  below.     In  Massachusetts  102°  perhaps  indicates  the 
extreme   of  heat  which  has  been  experienced,  and  20° 
below  zero   the  extreme  of  cold.      Once  in  the      1335^ 
present  century  the  mercury  at  New  Haven  in     ^'"'•^• 
Connecticut  has  fallen  to  25°  below  zero.     The  mean  tem- 
perature of  the  year  in  Massachusetts  varies  between  forty- 
four  and  fifty-one  degrees.     Great  changes  are  so  sudden, 
that  the  mercury  has  been  known  to  range,  at 
Boston,  through  forty-five  degrees  within  twenty-     '^''"'■ 
four  hours.^     In  a  day  within  the  last  forty  years,  it  rose 
twenty-seven  degrees   between   seven  o'clock  in      jgai, 
the  morning  and  two  in  the  afternoon,  and  fell    •^""-  ^^' 
thirty-three  degrees  in  the  seven  hours  next  succeeding. 
Nor  was  this  anything  more  than  a  singular  instance  of 
such  fluctuations.     The  common  opinion  that  the  climate 
has  moderated  since  the   time   of  the    European   settle- 
ments is  probably  erroneous.'^ 

Droughts,  though  not  of  unusual  occurrence,  are  not 
often  of  great  severity.     At  Cambridge,  in  Massa-  Rain  and 
chusetts,  the  average  annual  fall  of  rain  is  about  '^^"g'^t^- 
forty-three  inches ;  at  Brunswick,  in  Maine,^  about  forty 
inches  ;   and  at  New  Haven,   in  Connecticut,  forty-four 
inches.      The    extremes    in    Massachusetts    have  ^^.^  ^g^g 
been  a  fall  of  fifty-four  and  of  thirty  inches.     In 
Maine,  in  two  diff'erent  years,  it  is  recorded  that  ns-.nea. 
snow  fell  to  the  depth  of  five  feet  upon  a  level."*     In  twen- 


1  In  the  evening  of  March  4,  1856,  emy,  New  Series,  L  114  ei  seq. — Mr. 
it  fell  eight  degrees,  fi-om  39°  to  31°,  in  Savage  (Winthrop,  History  of  New- 
five  minutes.  England,   I.   119)  favors  the  common 

2  Remarks  on  the  Climate  of  New  opinion. 

England,  by  ^Ir.  .John  C.  Gray,  append-  ^  According  to  "Williamson  (History 

ed  to  the  First  Annual  Report  of  the  of  Maine,  L   99),  the  average  fall  in 

Massachusetts    Board    of   Agriculture,  Maine  is  thirty-seven  inches,  of  which 

147  et  seq.     Dr.  Enoch  Hale's  Memoir,  about  one  third  part  is  in  snow  and  hail, 

in  the  Memoirs  of  the  American  Acad-  ^  Ibid.^  I.  lOO. 


12  inSTORY  OF  NEW  ENGL^VND.  [Book  I. 

ty-fivc  years  the  extreme  range  of  the  barometer 

1825-1850.  "^     .  .  ° 

at  Cambridge,  in  Massachusetts,  "was  two  inches 
and  sixty-four  hundredths.  The  summer  heats  are  often 
allayed  by  tempests  of  thunder  and  lightning.  Tornadoes 
occur  but  rarely.^  There  is  no  appearance  of  volcanic 
formation.-  But  from'  time  to  time  there  have  been  earth- 
quakes, which  have  created  alarm  without  being  destruc- 
1-55^  tive.  The  most  considerable,  in  the  same  month 
Nov.  18.  with  the  great  earthquake  at  Lisbon,  was  observed 
to  extend  from  Halifax,  in  Nova  Scotia,  to  Chesapeake 
Bay.  It  shook  down  a  hundred  chimneys  in  Boston. 
It  was  the  last  that  did  any  damage. 

The  great  and  sudden  variations  of  temperature  impair 
Local  dis-  the  salubrity  of  the  climate,  and  in  other  respects 
eases.  ^j^g  large  features  of  geographical  structure  above 

described  must  be  presumed  to  produce  local  modifications 
of  its  general  character.  The  long  winters  of  the  high- 
lands, their  strong  and  dry  northwest  winds,  and  their  cool 
summers,  have  an  effect  on  the  human  frame  different  from 
that  of  the  damp  and  chilly  airs  which,  in  company  with 
the  tides  of  icy  water,  descend  upon  the  region  that  borders 
the  eastern  shore.  The  coast  country  of  Rhode  Island 
and  Connecticut,  out  of  the  reach  of  the  harsh  currents, 
which  are  arrested  or  turned  away  by  the  projection  of 
Cape  Cod,^  and  accessible  instead  to  the  softer  influence 
of  southern  tides  and  gales,  may  be  supposed  to  present 
another  class  of  conditions  of  health.     Yet  such  diversi- 

1  The  most  violent  known  to  have  the  Geology  of  Massachusetts,  2d  edit., 
occurred  was  that  which  passed  through     p.  208.     But  eomp.  p.  431.) 

the  towns  of  Waltham,  West  Cam-  3  The  importance  of  this  influence 
bridge,  and  iVIedford,  August  22,  1851.  appears  in  the  fact  that,  to  a  great  ex- 
An  account  of  it  by  Professor  Eustis  is  tent,  the  fishes  and  mollusks  are  differ- 
in  the  Memoirs  of  the  American  Acad-  ent  on  the  two  sides  of  the  Cape.  The 
emy.  New  Series,  V.  169  e<  s*?7.  meteorological  journals  which  I   have 

2  Professor  Hitchcock  rejects  the  consulted  for  the  course  of  the  winds  at 
opinion  that  "  there  are  traces  of  vol-  Boston  and  at  Providence  are  both  de- 
canic  action  at  Clay  Head,"  on  the  Isl-  ficient  in  respect  to  a  few  days'  obser- 
and  of  Marllui's  Vineyard.    (Report  on  vations.     From  that  kept  at  Boston  it 


Chap.  I.]  METEOROLOGY,  CLIMATE,  AXD   SOIL.  13 

ties  are  subordinate  to  a  general  uniformity,  in  which 
New  England  gives  to  all  her  children  the  birthright  of  a 
fair  prospect  of  health  and  longevity.  The  configuration 
of  the  surface  forbids  the  stagnation  of  masses  of  water, 
and  the  tides  of  the  neighboring  ocean,  the  snow  on  the 
hills,  and  the  winds  which  the  rapid  changes  of  tempera- 
ture keep  in  motion,  are  perpetual  restorers  of  a  whole- 
some atmosphere.  In  the  absence  of  marshes  diffusing 
noxious  miasmata,  intermittent  fevers  rarely  occur.' 
Among  the  fatal  maladies  pulmonary  consumption  num- 
bers most  victims.  Diseases  of  the  nervous  system  are 
next  in  frequency.  Malignant  epidemic  fevers,  especially 
of  the  typhoid  type,  are  of  occasional  occurrence.  The  par- 
tial returns  in  Massachusetts  of  80,995  deaths, 
in  four  years,  showed  4,482  persons  to  have  died 
at  an  ag^e  exceedino^  eighty.     Of  20,798  whose 

^  .  ^  .    .^        ''  1855. 

deaths  were  registered  m  a  recent  year,  ten  were 
more  than  a  hundred  years  old. 

In  less  than  two  centuries  and  a  half  a  different  climate 
and  regimen  on  this  continent  have  produced  in  the  de- 
scendants of  the  English  some  remarkable  physiological 
changes.  The  normal  type  of  the  Englishman  at  home 
exhibits  a  full  habit,  a  moist  skin,  curly  hair,  a  sanguine 
temperament.  In  the  transplanted  race  the  form  is  often- 
er  slender,  the  skin  dry,  the  hair  straight,  the  tempera- 
ment bilious  or  nervous. 

The  agricultural  season  is  short,  \yinter  lasts  throuijh 
nearly  half  the  year.    In  Massachusetts,  the  mean 

n     1  •     ^  11  i"i  1  Agriculture. 

temperature  ot  the  eight  cold  months  is  less  than 


appears  that  the  course  of  the  winds  for      Between  north  and  east,     352  days. 

five  years  was  as  follows:  —  Between  east  and  south,     172     " 

North,    40.         Northeast,    270.  Between  south  and  west,     597     " 

East,     135.         Southeast,      65.  Between  west  and  north,    690     " 

South,     25.         Southwest,  515.  l  But  they  were  not  uncommon  in 

West,   155.         Northwest,  570.  early  times.     (Holmes,  Boylston  Prize 

At  Providence  the  record  of  the  same  Dissertation  on  Indigenous  Intermittent 

time  shows  that  winds  prevailed  Fever,  pp.  11  -  25.) 
VOL.  I.                                   2 


l-i  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

forty  degrees.  That  of  the  four  warai  months  is  nearly 
seventy.  In  storms  the  aspect  of  winter  is  austere.  In 
fair  weather  it  is  brilliant,  with  its  radiance  of  snow  and  ice 
reflecting  sun  or  stars  through  a  transparent  atmosphere. 
No  verdure  but  that  of  evergreens  resists  the  annual  cold, 
and  an  unmclted  mass  of  snow  often  covers  the  ground  for 
months.  The  late  and  sudden  bursting  forth  of  the  spring 
severely  tasks  the  laborer,  while  the  rapid  growth  which 
follows  surprises  the  traveller  from  a  lower  latitude.  In 
years  of  average  vernal  temperature  in  Massachusetts,  the 
ground  is  ready  for  the  plough  by  the  first  week  in  April. 
The  average  blossoming  of  the  apple  is  on  the  IGtli  of 
May.  Grass  is  cut  for  drying  between  the  middle  of 
June  and  the  middle  of  July.  Indian  corn  is  ripe  in 
September.  By  the  first  week  of  November  the  last 
fruits  of  the  year  are  gathered  in.^  Some  of  the  aspects 
of  nature  are  of  rare  beauty.  No  other  country  presents 
a  more  gorgeous  appearance  of  the  sky  than  that  of  the 
New-England  summer  sunset  ;  none,  a  more  brilliant 
painting  of  the  forests  than  that  with  which  the  sudden 
maturity  of  the  foliage  transfigures  the  landscape  of  au- 
tumn. No  air  is  more  delicious  than  that  of  the  warm 
but  bracing  October  and  November  noons  of  the  Indian 
summer  of  New  England. 

The  soil  generally  is  not  fertile.     There  is  a  wide  beach 
of  sand  alone:  the  coast;   in  the  interior,  rocks 

Soil.  ^  .     '  . 

and  gravel,  with  occasional  vems  of  clay,  cover 
a  large  part  of  the  surface.  The  cultivation  of  more  than 
two  centuries  has  greatly  improved  the  quality  of  those 
portions  of  the  land  which  have  convenient  communica- 
tion M'ith  markets.     But  most  of  the  natural  fruitfulness 

1  IIcTO  too,  however,  (lifTi-roncos  oc-  and  snows  cover  the  low  lands  as  well 

casioiicd  In-  the  inequalities  of  surface  as  the  hills  of  Berkshire  weeks  before 

come  into  the  aecount.    In  the  openinjr  it  is  seen,  and  after  it  has  disappeared, 

of  spring,  the  valley  of  the  Connecticut  in   the   meadows   about   Mas*"' 

is,  on  an  average,  a  fortnight   in  ad-  liay. 
vance  of  the  highlands  on  its  borders; 


Chap.  I.]  NATURAL  HISTORY.  15 

of  the  region  was  found  in  the  valleys  of  the  great  rivers. 
The  borders  of  the  Penobscot,  the  Kennebec,  the  Con- 
necticut, and  other  streams,  enriched  in  past  ages  and 
still  reinvigorated  by  the  deposits  of  the  annual  overflow, 
exhibit  a  fecundity  in  strong  contrast  with  the  stony 
hill-sides.  Massachusetts  is  the  least  fruitful  of  the  six 
States.  Maine,  skirted  by  a  barren  shore,  contains  in- 
land the  largest  proportion  of  good  arable  soil.  The 
wide  grazing  lands  of  New  Hampshire  and  Vermont 
send  immense  herds  and  flocks  to  the  markets  of  the 
sea-coast. 

There  is  no  part  of  the  country  which  is  not  well 
provided  with  fresh  water.  Numerous  springs  bring  it 
to  the  surface,  and  an  ample  supply  is  everywhere  to 
be    procured    by    dic^orino:   a  few  feet.      Mineral 

■  Ml  •    n  T  Minerals. 

wealth  is  still  but  partially  developed.  A  lit- 
tle copper  is  found,  some  lead,  some  graphite,  and  con- 
siderable quantities  of  iron  and  of  manganese.  There 
are  beds  of  an  inferior  description  of  anthracite  coal.  In 
Maine,  New  Hampshire,  and  Massachusetts,  there  are 
ample  quarries  of  slate,  and  limestone  abounds  in  Rhode 
Island  and  Maine.  The  granite  and  sienite  of  Eastern 
Massachusetts,  the  white  marble  of  the  western  moun- 
tain range,  and  the  sandstone  of  the  Connecticut  valley, 
are  valuable  materials  for  building,  while  the  serpentine  of 
Vermont  and  the  variegated  marbles  of  Connecticut  have 
come  into  use  for  architectural  embellishment.  Here  and 
there  are  medicinal  springs,  generally  of  a  chalybeate 
quality.     Salt  is  only  to  be  had  from  sea-water. 

The  native  grasses  of  the  upland  were  rank,  but  so 
little  nutritious  that  the  European  planters  found 

^  '-  Botany. 

it  better  to  fodder  their  cattle  on  the  salt  growth 

of  the   sea-marshes;^    and  this   consideration  determined 

1  "  The  natural  vipland  grass  of  the  good,  as  barley  straw."  (Hutchinson, 
country,  commonly  called /nrfjan  ^ra.w,  History,  I.  424,  426,  427.)  The  first 
is  poor  fodder,  perhaps  not  better,  if  so     settlers  were  deceived  by  its  rankness, 


16 


HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 


[Book  I. 


the  site  of  some  of  tlie  early  settlements.  The  tough,  1 
fibrous  bark  of  an  mdigenous  plant,  a  species  of  dog- 
bane, well  served  the  purposes  of  hemp.^  The  woods 
were  so  vast  that  the  early  writers  describe  them  as  cov- 
ering the  country."  In  fact,  it  was  naturally  all  forest- 
clad,  excepting  the  bogs  and  salt-marshes,  and  the  moun- 
tiiin  tracts  above  the  limit  of  trees.  An  abundance  of 
the  oak,  hickory,  walnut,  ash,  elm,  maple,  pine,  spruce, 
chestnut,  cedar,  and  other  forest-trees,  afforded  supplies 
for  fuel,  tools,  weapons,  utensils,  and  building.^  The 
chestnut,  hazlenut,  beechnut,  butternut,  and  shagbark 
made  their  contributions  to  the  resources  for  winter  sup- 
ply. Wild  cherries,  mulberries,  and  plums  increased  the 
variety  of  the  summer's  diet.  Wild  berries,  as  the  straw- 
berry, the  gooseberry,  the  raspberry,  the  blackberry,  the 
whortleberry,  the  cranberry,  grew  in  abundance  in  the 
meadow  and  champaign  lands.  Vines  bearing  grapes  of 
tolerable  flavor  flourished  along  the  streams.'*      A  profu- 


and  tliought  of  it  much  too  favorably. 
(So  Higginson,  New  England's  Planta- 
tion, in  ^lassachusetts  Historical  Collec- 
tions, I.  118.) 

1  "  A  kind  or  two  of  flax,  wherewith 
they  make  nets,  lines,  and  ropes,  both 
small  and  great,  very  strong  for  their 
quantities."  (Smith,  in  Mass.  Ilist. 
Coll.,  XXVI.  120.)  "We  found  an 
e.xcellent  strong  kind  of  flax  and 
hemp."     (Mourt,  Relation,  22.) 

2  "  Though  all  the  country  be,  as  it 
were,  a  thick  wood  for  the  general,  yet 
in  divers  places  there  is  much  ground 
cleared  by  the  Indians."  (Higginson, 
in  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  I.  117.)      "The 

country   generally  is extremely 

overgrown  with  wood."  (Josselyn, 
New  Kngland's  Rarities,  3.)  "  An 
uncouth  wilderness,  full  of  timber." 
(Early   Records  of  Charlestown.) 

3  Of  indigenous  evergreens,  the  no- 
ble  white-pine   was  the  characteristic 


tree  of  the  region.  Tliere  were  two 
kinds  of  pitch-pine,  four  of  fir  or 
spruce,  a  juniper  (commonly  known 
as  red  cedar),  a  cypress  (known  as 
white  cedar),  and  an  arbor  vitae.  Of 
deciduous  trees,  the  principal  were  one 
kind  of  chestnut,  nearly  a  dozen  spe- 
cies of  oak,  one  of  beech,  one  of  horn- 
beam, four  of  liickory,  two  of  walnut, 
five  of  birch,  four  or  five  of  poplar,  one 
of  larch,  two  of  elm,  three  or  four  of 
ash  and  as  many  of  maple,  one  of  lin- 
den, one  of  the  plane-tree  (attaining  a 
great  size  on  the  alluvial  banks  of  riv- 
ers), one  of  tupclo  or  sour-gum  tree, 
one  of  holly  along  the  southern  border, 
and,  the  most  showy  in  blossom,  the 
flowering  dog-wood  and  the  tulip-tree. 
The  two  last-named,  with  the  hickories, 
the  tupelo,  and  the  sassafras,  were  types 
totally  new  to  the  colonists. 

4  There  were  three  kinds  of  grapes, 
one  of  them  now  considered  worthy  of 


Chap.  I.]  NATURAL  HISTORY.  17 

sion  of  flowering  shrubs  and  of  aquatic,  forest,  and  field 
flowers,  the  wild  rose,  the  richly  perfumed  water-lily, 
the  rhododendron,  the  azalea,  the  anemone,  the  kalmia 
or  mountain-laurel,  the  cardinal-flower,  the  fringed  gen- 
tian, the  aster,  the  golden-rod,  brought  their  tribute  to 
the  pomp  of  the  year.  Among  plants  especially  esteemed 
for  their  medicinal  qualities  were  the  lobelia,  the  sarsa- 
parilla,  the  ginseng,  and  the  sassafras.  Cloven  branches 
of  resinous  wood  afforded  a  substitute  for  candles. 

The  sea  and  the  rivers  swarmed  with  fishes  of  kinds  the 
most  useful  to  man.     The  cod  has  been  an  im- 

,  Pishes. 

portant  article  of  trade  since  New-England  com- 
merce began,  as  have  the  mackerel  and  herring  in  only  a 
less  degree.  The  salmon,  the  bass,  the  shad,  the  halibut, 
the  trout,  the  eel,  the  cusk,  the  smelt,  the  tautog,  the 
swordfish,  the  haddock,  the  pickerel,  and  many  other  in- 
habitants of  the  fresh  and  salt  water,  of  inferior  considera- 
tion with  the  epicure,  still  abound  in  their  respective  sea- 
sons. Of  shell-fish,  lobsters  and  several  kinds  of  clams 
multiplied  on  the  beaches  and  among  the  rock^  of  the  sea- 
coast,  and  it  is  only  of  late  years  that  the  oyster  has  ceased 
to  be  common  at  the  mouths  of  the  southern  New-Eng- 
land rivers.  The  unprolific  whale,  hunted  for  its  oil,  has 
been  driven  from  its  ancient  haunts  about  New  England 
to  distant  seas,  till  it  seems  to  be  drawing  near  to  exter- 
mination. 

The  summer  brings  a  variety  of  birds  prized  for  food. 
The  most  abundant  is  the  pigeon,  which  former- 

.  Birds. 

ly  came  in  such  numbers  as  to  fill  the  air  for 

miles.^    Different  wild  species  of  the  goose  and  duck  resort 

to  the  sea-shore  in  the  colder  months  for  fish  and  aquatic 

cultivation  ;    two   species  of  strawber-  i  "  Pigeons,  that  come  in  multitudes 

ry ;  several  of  raspberry  and  of  black-  every  summer,   almost  like  the  quails 

berry ;  one  or  two  of  haws ;  one  or  two  that  fell  round  the  camp  of  Israel  in 

of  gooseberry ;  two  of  cranberry ;  two  the   wilderness."      (Hubbard,  History, 

or  three  of  whortleberry,  and  severed  in  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  XV.  25 ;  Belknap, 

species  of  blueberry.  History  of  New  Hampshire,  HI.  171.) 
2* 


18  HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

plants  and  insects.  The  qnail  and  the  red-breasted  thrush 
(commonly  kno^^^l  as  the  robin)  make  their  nests  in  the 
uplands.  The  woodcock  and  the  ruffed-grouse,  or  par- 
tridge, hide  in  the  copses.  Various  species  of  the  plover 
and  of  other  birds  of  passage  haunt  the  meadows  and 
the  marshes.  The  wild  turkey,  now  rarely  seen,  throve 
on  berries  in  the  woods.^  Of  all  the  feathered  tribes,  the 
tiny  humming-bird  of  New  England  displays  the  most 
delicate  beauty;  few  are  more  gorgeous  than  the  oriole, 
or  golden  robin,  which  comes  from  the  Chesapeake  to 
pass  its  summer  in  this  region ;  the  bluebird,  the  golden- 
winged  woodpecker,  the  rose-breasted  grosbeak,  are  among 
the  birds  conspicuous  for  their  brilliant  plumage.  The 
oriole  asserts  equally  his  eminence  in  music.  The  hermit- 
thrush,  or  mavis,  charms  the  woods  at  nightfall.  The 
song-sparrow  pours  out  its  joyous  melody  all  day  long. 
The  American  starling,  or  meadow-lark,  is  pronounced 
by  Wilson  to  be  "  eminently  superior  to  the  skjdark  of 
Europe  in  sweetness  of  voice,  as  far  as  his  few  notes  ex- 
tend." ^  From  its  close  retreat  the  whippoorwill  sends  to 
a  long  distance  its  wild  and  plaintive  song.  The  hawk 
and  horned  owl  are  formidable  to  poultry-yards.  The 
blue-jay,  the  crow,  and  tlie  blackbird  annoy  the  husband- 
man by  their  inroads  upon  the  just  planted  and  just  ripen- 
ing grain,  which  they  have  defended  against  more  de- 
structive enemies. 

The  moist  heat  of  the  region  favors  an  exuberance  of 
some  kinds  of  insect  life.      The  short  summer 

Insects. 

campaign  of  the  canker-worm  leaves  devastation 
behind  in  the  orchards  and  on  the  most  prized  of  the  or- 
namental trees  within  the  narrow  limits  which  it  infests ; 
cut-worms  and  other  caterpillars  ravage  the  grain-fields ; 
borers  and  other  beetles  deform  the  gardens.  To  the 
higher  animals  the  insects  are  for  the  most  part  harm- 
less, though  during  the  heats  of  summer,  especially  at  the 

1  Iligginson,  in  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  I.  121.         2  Aruerican  Ornithology,  III.  20. 


Chap.  L]  ABORIGINAL  INHABITANTS.  19 

close  of  the  day,  and  in  moist  places,  the  presence  of  the 
mosquito  perpetually  detracts  from  the  comfort  of  man ; 
and  he  has  to  take  care  not  to  disturb  the  wasp  and 
hornet,  which  build  their  nests  about  his  dwelling.  The 
larger  kinds  of  reptiles  native  to  the  soil  have 

.  .   1         ,  .  „  Reptiles. 

been  disappearmg  with  the  mcrease  of  popula- 
tion. Of  those  sometimes  still  seen  are  the  harmless 
black  snake,  six  or  seven  feet  in  length,  and  the  rattle- 
snake, whose  bite,  popularly  esteemed  to  be  surely  fatal, 
has  in  fact  been  known  to  cause  death  when  meeting  with 
a  morbid  predisposition  in  the  patient. 

The  native  quadrupeds  of  New  England,  as  generally 
of  all  America,  are  of  types  inferior  to  those 
of  the  other  hemisphere.^  The  bear,  the  wolf, 
the  catamount,  and  the  Ijnx  or  wild-cat,  were  the  most 
formidable.  The  moose,  which  has  disappeared  except 
from  the  secluded  portions  of  New  Hampshire  and  Maine, 
was  the  largest,  measuring  five  feet  and  a  third  in  height, 
and  nearly  seven  feet  in  the  length  of  the  body.  The 
fallow  deer,  not  quite  exterminated  at  this  day,  was  abun- 
dant in  the  woods.  Of  fur-bearing  animals  there  were 
the  beaver,  the  otter,  the  ermine,  the  raccoon,  the  mus- 
quash, the  mink,  the  sable,  and  the  martin,  besides  the 
fox  and  the  squirrel,  and  others  less  prized. 

In  such  a  territory  and  amid  such  circumstances  dwelt, 
in  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century,  a  few  tens 
of  thousands  of  men. 

The  nearest  approximation  to  a  knowledge  of  these 
people  in  their  primitive  condition  is  of  course  ^^^^^^^ 
to  be  gained  from  such  journals  as  exist  of  the  tionsofthe 

o        mi  1  1  ^^^^  voya- 

early  European  voyages.^     These  supply  only  su-  gersontho 
perficial   information.      The   natives,    when  first 


natives. 


1  Guyot,  Earth  and  Man,  193.  show  "  the  last  ghmmers  of  savage  L'fe, 

2  "  These  records  of  the  past,  like     as  it  becomes  absorbed,  or  recedes  ba- 
the stern-lights   of  a   departing   ship,"     fore  the  tide  of  civilization."  (Ludewig's 


20  HISTORY   OF   NEW   ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

seen,  were  observed  to  be  "  of  tall  stature,  comely  propor- 
tion, strong,  active,  and,  as  it  should  seem,  very  health- 
ful." ^  They  were  "  in  color  swart,  their  hair  long,  their 
bodies  painted."  They  had  clothing  of  skins  of  the  deer 
and  the  seal,  with  ornaments  of  quills,  feathers,  and  plates 
of  copper,  and  collars  and  ear-rings  of  that  metal  and  of 
bones  and  marine  shells.  They  were  armed  with  bows  and 
arrows.  They  stole  at  the  first  opportunity  which  offered 
itself,  but  were  easily  frightened  into  making  restitution. 
The  women  and  children  were  "  clean  and  straight  bodied, 
with  countenance  sweet  and  pleasant,"  and  behavior  mod- 
est and  coy.  The  first  English  visitor  had  reason  to  be 
satisfied  with  his  reception,  when  "  there  presented  unto 
him  men,  women,  and  children,  who  with  all  courteous 
kindness  entertained  him,  giving  him  certain  skins  of 
wild  beasts,  tobacco,  turtles,  hemp,  artificial  strings  col- 
ored, chains,  and  such  like  things  as  at  the  present  they 
had  about  them."  But  within  a  fortnight  they  shot  at 
two  of  the  strangers  who  had  strayed  from  their  com- 
pany, and  gave  other  proofs  of  vmfriendliness."  Their 
way  of  obtaining  fire  was  to  strike  two  stones  together, 
and  catch  the  spark  upon  touchwood.  They  had  "strings 
and  cords  of  flax."  That  they  were  "very  witty"  was 
thought  to  be  indicated  by  "  sundry  toys  of  theirs  cun- 
ningly wrought."  ^ 

These  were  dwellers  about  Massachusetts  Bay  and  the 
Vineyard  Sound.  Observations  made  shortly  after  on 
the  maritime  country  further  east  tended  to  show  an  iden- 
tity of  appearance  and  habits  among  the  difierent  tribes 
of  New  England.  Some  official  persons  (such  they  ap- 
peared to  be)  among  the  Indians  about  the  Penobscot  or 
the  Kennebec  affected  a  style  of  decoration  more  gaudy 

Litcratureof  American  Aboriginal  Lan-        ~  Gabriol  Archer,  Relation  of  Cap- 

guapes,  xi.)  tain  GosnoUl's  Voyage,  Ibid.,  73  -  76. 

1   fJosnold  in  his  letter  to  his  father,         3  John    Brereton,    Brief   and   True 

in  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  XXVIII.  71.  Relation,  Ibid.,  88-<J3. 


Chap.  I]  ABORIGINAL  INHABITANTS.  21 

than  that  of  their  western  neighbors,  painting  their  faces 
"very  deep,  some  all  black,  some  red,  with  stripes  of  ex- 
cellent blue  over  their  upper  lips,  nose,  and  chin,"  and 
wearing  "the  white-feathered  skins  of  some  fowl  round 
about  their  head,  jewels  in  their  ears,  and  bracelets  of 
little  white  round  bone,  fastened  together  upon  a  leather 
string."  ^ 

The  earliest  French  visitor  to  the  Massachusetts  In- 
dians did  not  secure  among  them  the  usual  welcome  to 
his  nation,  but  found  occasion  to  report,  "  They  are  trai- 
tors and  thieves,  and  one  has  need  to  take  care  of  them."^ 
Captain  John  Smith  saw  more  of  them  than  his  predeces- 
sors, and  with  a  more  discerning  eye,  if  with  some  pro- 
pensity towards  a  too  favorable  representation ;  and  read- 
ers of  the  present  day  regret  that  in  this  respect  he  has 
provided  so  little  satisfaction  for  their  curiosity.  "  The 
country  of  the  Massachusetts,"  he  says,  "  is  the  paradise 
of  all  those  parts."  "  The  sea-coast,  as  you  pass,  shows 
you  all  along  large  cornfields,  and  great  troops  of  well- 
proportioned  people."  "  We  found  the  people  in  those 
parts  very  kind,  but  in  their  fury  no  less  valiant."^ 

In  attempting  some  delineation  of  the  aboriginal  inhab- 
itants of  New  England,  it  is  necessary  to  anticipate  the 
observations  of  later  years,  when  Europeans  had  become 
established  in  their  neighborhood.  And  in  using  such 
authorities,  it  is  essential  to  remember  that,  from  step  to 
step,  while  the  opportunities  for  maturing  an  acquaint- 
ance with  the  Indian  character  and  habits  were  extended, 
the  character  and  habits  were  themselves  becoming  modi- 
fied by  the  presence  of  the  strangers  ;  while  the  lineaments 
were  subjected  to  study,  the  lineaments  were  effaced  or 
changed,  and  the  fidelity  of  the  likeness  to  the  prototype 
was  rendered  questionable. 

*  Greorge  Waymouth,  True  Relation,        3  Smith,  Description  of  Kew  Eng- 
Ibid.,  146.  land,  2G  (edit.  IGIC). 

2  L'Esearbot,   Histoire   de   la   Nou- 
velle  France,  II.  498. 


22  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

Few  American  animals,  if  indeed  any  one,  whether  in- 
habiting: the  earth,  the  air,  or  the  inland  waters, 
icai.  Indians  can  bo  referred  to  species  known  in  the  other 
fauiiiyof  hemisphere.  V\  ithout  entermg  into  the  question 
01  an  original  diversity  oi  human  races,  it  is  sale 
to  say  that  superficial  indications  extend  the  rule  from 
the  hiferior  sorts  to  "  the  paragon  of  animals."  Of  the 
five  families  into  which,  according  to  the  most  current 
classification,  physiologists  distribute  mankind,  the  North- 
American  Esquimaux,  who  occupy  the  Arctic  region  as 
far  down  as  the  fifty-sixth  degree  of  north  latitude,  are 
of  the  Mongolian  type ;  the  same  which,  most  widely  dif- 
fused of  all,  covers  far  the  greater  part  of  Asia  on  the 
one  side,  and  through  Greenland  touches  the  confines  of 
Europe  on  the  other.  But  leaving  the  region  of  the  Es- 
quimaux, we  find  the  American  continent  from  Hudson's 
Bay  to  Cape  Horn  to  be  the  native  home  of  races  difiering 
mdeed  more  or  less  from  one  another,  but  still  with  an 
agreement  in  generic  characters,  which  distinguish  them 
not  less  from  the  Mongolian  family  than  from  the  Cauca- 
sian, the  African,  and  the  Malay.  The  symmetrical  frame, 
the  cinnamon  color  of  the  skin,  the  long,  black,  coarse  hair, 
the  scant  beard,  the  high  cheek-bones,  the  depressed  and 
square  forehead  set  upon  a  triangular  conformation  of  the 
lower  features,  the  small,  deep-set,  shining,  snaky  eyes, 
the  protuberant  lips,  the  broad  nose,  the  small  skull  with 
its  feeble  frontal  development,^  make  a  combination  which 
the  scientific  observer  of  some  of  these  marks  in  the  skel- 
eton, and  the  unlearned  eye  turned  upon  the  living  sub- 
ject, equally  recognize  as  unlike  what  is  seen  in  other  re- 
gions of  the  globe." 

Of  the  seven  groups  of  natives  which,  at  the  time  of 

1  Tlic  contents  of  the  Caucasian  era-  2  «  j^q  other  race  of  man  maintains 

nium  liave  an  average  measurement  of  such  a  striking  analogy  through  all  ita 

ninety-tiirec  cul)ic  inches ;  those  of  the  subdivisions,  and  amidst  all  its  variety 

craniuniofthc!  North-American  Indian,  of  physical  circumst^inces."     (Morton, 

but  eighty-four.  Crania  Americana,  Q3.) 


Chap.  I.]  ABORIGLNAL  INHABITANTS.  23 

the  first  authenticated  European  explorations,  oc-  <,gyg„foid 
cupied  the  country  enclosed  by  the  Gulf  of  Mex-  division  of 

•  1  Tir-'--i  11  11         o         the  North 

ico,  the  Mississippi,  the  great  lakes,  and  the  St.  American 
Lawrence,  three,  the  Natchez,  the  Uchees,  and 
the  Catawbas,  possessed  but  a  small  space  of  territory. 
The  range  of  the  Cherokces  was  wider ;  that  of  the  Iro- 
quois, or  Five  Nations,  wider  still.     The  combination  of 
the  Choctaws,  Chickasaws,  and  Creeks  (Muskhogees),  in 
the  extreme  southern  region,  was  yet  more  extensive.    But 
the  largest  domain  of  all  was  that  of  the  family  to  which 
the  French  gave  the  name  of  Algonquin}     In  the  terri- 
tory roamed  over  by  the  Algonquins  was  included  that 
which   extends  along  the  Atlantic   Ocean  from  Pamlico 
Sound  to  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  and  no  other  race 
than  this  occupied  any  portion  of  New  England. 

A  difference  in  dialect  is  the  basis  of  a  division  of  the 
New-England  Indians  into  two  classes,  one  con-  „    ,,, 

O  '  Twofold 

sistinoj  of  those  who  inhabited  what  is  now  the  division  of 

^  ^  ^  the  New- 

State  of  Maine,  nearly  up  to  its  western  border;  England 

the  other,  of   the  rest  of  the  New-England  na- 
tive population."     Of  the  Maine  Indians,  the  Etetchemins 
dwelt  furthest  towards  the  east ;  the  Abenaquis,  of  which 
nation  the  Tarratines  were  a  part,^  hunted  on  both  sides  of 

1  ^.Ir.  Gallatin's  map,  attached  to  his  tha's  Vineyard,  and  another  from 
Synopsis  of  the  Indian  Tribes,  &c.,  (in  Maine,  "  who  at  first  hardly  under- 
the  second  volume  of  Transactions  of  stood  one  the  other's  speech,  till  after 
the  American  Antiquarian  Society,)  a  while  I  perceived  the  diiference  was 
exhibits  the  territories  belonging  to  no  more  than  that  as  ours  is  between 
these  tribes  respectively.  the  Northern  and    Southern   people." 

2  Gallatin  (Synopsis,  32) ;  WilUam-  Gookin  says  (Ibid.,  I.  149),  "The 
son  (History  of  Maine,  I.  4G0).  A  Indians  of  the  parts  of  New  Eng- 
comparison  of  Mr.  Gallatin's  vocabu-  land,  especially  upon  the  sea-coasts,  use 
laries  (Synopsis,  307,  &c.)  appears  the  same  sort  of  speech  and  language." 
abundantly  to  confirm  the  statement.  But  under  the  name  New  England 
There  are  not  wanting,  however,  high  Gookin  did  not  include  INIaine.  In  the 
authorities  on  the  opposite  side.  (See  preceding  chapter,  entided  "  Of  the 
Pickering,  in  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  XIX.  Principal  Indians  that  inhabit  New 
236-239,  and  Duponceau,  Ibid.,  Ap.  England,"  he  says  nothing  of  those 
VI.,  YII.)     Gorges  (Ibid.,  XXVI.  59)  east  of  the  Piscataqna. 

speaks  of  an  Indian  of  his  from  Mar-         3  Hutchinson,  I.  404.      Williamson 


24  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

the  Penobscot,  and  westward  as  far  as  the  Saco,  if  not 
quite  to  the  Piscataqua.  The  home  of  the  Penacook,  or 
Pawtuckct,  Indians  was  in  the  southeast  corner  of  New 
Hampshire  and  the  contiguous  region  of  Massachusetts. 
Next  dwelt  the  Massachusetts  tribe,  along  the  bay  of  that 
name.  Then  were  found  successively  the  Pokanokets,  or 
Wampanoags,  in  the  southeastern  region  of  Massachusetts 
and  by  Buzzard's  and  Narragansett  Bays;  the  Narragan- 
setts,  with  an  inferior  and  probably  tributary  tribe,  called 
the  Nyantics,  in  what  is  now  the  State  of  Rhode  Island ; 
the  Pequots,  between  the  Narragansetts  and  the  river  for- 
merly called  the  Pequot  River,  now  the  Thames;  and 
the  Mohegans,  spreading  themselves  as  far  as  the  river 
Connecticut.  From  the  Mohcgan  hunting-grounds  the 
country  of  the  Mohawks  was  understood  to  begin.  That 
powerful  nation  never  had  a  permanent  residence  on  New- 
England  soil,  but  they  were  accustomed  annually  to  send 
envoys  to  collect  tribute  from  the  nearest  Eastern  tribes. 
In  the  central  region  of  Massachusetts  were  the  Nipmucks, 
or  Nipnets,  and  along  Cape  Cod  the  Nausets,  who  appear 
to  have  owed  some  fealty  to  the  Pokanokets.  Vermont, 
"Western  Massachusetts,  and  Northern  New  Hampshire 
were  almost,  if  not  absolutely,  without  inhabitants. 

The  estimates  which  have  been  made  of  the  native 
Native  popu-  populatiou  of  New  England  at  the  time  of  the  first 
NewEn'-  EugUsh  immigrations  are  discordant.  A  probable 
land.  computation  places  the  number  not  far  from  fifty 

thousand  souls.'  Of  this  aggregate,  Connecticut  and 
Rhode  Island  together  may  have  contained  one  half,  and 

(I.  470)  makes  the  Tarratincs  to  be-  must   liavc   boon  from  (liirtv  to  fortv 

long    to    the    Etctclicmins.       Gallatin  thousand  souls,  before  the  ejiidemic  dis- 

(Synopsis,  33)  regards  the  names  Tar-  case  which  preceded  the  landing  of  the 

ratine  and  Ahenaqni  as  equivalent.  Pilgrims."  The  statistics  of  Daniel  Goo- 

1  Mr.   Gallatin  (Synopsis,  37)  con-  kin,  in  1G74,  (Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  I.  147 

eludes    "that   the    Indian    population  - 149,)  would,  if  admitted,  furnish  the 

within   the  present  boundaries  of  the  basis  of  an  estimate  more  than  doublino' 

States  of  New   Hampshire,  Massachu-  this  number, 
setts,   Rhode  Island,   and    Connecticut 


Chap.  I.]  ABORIGINAL  INHABITANTS.  25 

Maine  less  than  two  thirds  of  the  other  half.  This  was 
no  occupation  of  a  country  which,  not  yet  completely 
occupied,  contains  at  this  time  three  millions  of  men. 

These  people  held  a  low  place  on  the  scale  of  human- 
ity.     Even  their  physical  capacities  contradicted 

•'  _  J-      •'  *■  ^  Their  physi- 

the  promise  of  their  external  conformation.  Sup-  cai  cimrac- 
ple  and  agile,  so  that  it  was  said  they  would  run 
eighty  or  a  hundred  miles  in  a  day,  and  back  again  in  the 
next  two,  they  sank  under  continuous  labor.  The  lym- 
phatic temperament  indicated  the  same  preponderance  in 
them  of  "vegetative  nature"  ^vhich  marked  other  animals 
of  the  same  continent.^  They  scarcely  wept  or  smiled. 
Their  slender  appetites  required  small  indulgence.  They 
could  support  life  on  the  scantiest  quantity  of  food,  and 
the  innutritions  stimulus  of  tobacco  seemed  almost  enough 
to  supply  its  place ;  though  at  times  a  gormandizing  rage 
seemed  to  possess  them,  and  they  w^ould  be  as  ravenous 
in  abundance  as  they  were  capable  of  being  abstemious 
under  necessity.  If  they  were  continent,  it  can  only  be 
to  coldness  of  constitution  that  this  was  due ;  but  no  in- 
stance is  recorded  of  their  oifering  insult  to  a  female  cap- 
tive or  soliciting  her  familiarity,  and  the  coyness  of  their 
women  repelled  approach  on  the  part  of  European  visit- 
ors. If  there  was  noticed  a  remarkable  exemption  from 
physical  deformities,  this  was  probably  not  the  effect  of 
any  peculiar  congenital  force  or  completeness,  but  of  cir- 
cumstances which  forbade  the  prolongation  of  any  imper- 
fect life.  The  deaf,  blind,  or  lame  child  was  too  burden- 
some to  be  reared,  and,  according  to  a  savage's  estimate  of 
usefulness  and  enjoyment,  its  prolonged  life  would  not 
requite  its  nurture.     A  sort  of  compassion  would  early 

1  Guyot,  Earth  and  Man,  pp.  103-  gume  temperament,  by  his  gayety,  by 

195.      "  There  is  even  in  the  tropical  his  lively  affections,  and  by  his  muspu- 

man  of  the   Old  World,  in  Africa  at  lar  strength,   which  places  him  higher 

least,  a  somewhat  of  native  vigor,  of  than  the  Indian  of  tropical  America," 

vital   energy,   manifested   by   his   sau-  &c.     Ibid.,  p.  206. 

VOL.  I.  3 


26  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

relieve  it  from  wliat  would  seem,  under  such  disabilities, 
the  misery  of  existence,  or  it  would  die  prematurely  from 
neglect,  or  from  mere  want  of  that  skilful  assiduity  which 
parental  affection  in  civilized  society  studies  peculiarly  to 
bestow  upon  peculiarly  helpless  offspring.  Their  demean- 
or, so  grave  when  exposed  to  notice,  was  apt  to  be  taken 
for  an  indication  of  self-respect,  but  was  equally  suscep- 
tible of  being  interpreted  as  betokening  a  mere  stolid 
vacuity  of  emotion  and  thought. 

Supplies  for  the  essential  wants  of  physical  life  —  food. 
Their  shelter,  and  clothing  —  were  of  the  rudest  kind, 

dress.  Undressed  skins  of  deer  or  of  other  wild  animals 
furnished  the  winter's  attire;  in  summer,  the  men  wore 
about  the  middle  only  a  piece  of  deer-skin,  from  which 
the  fur  had  been  removed  by  friction.  Moccasons  reach- 
ing above  the  ankle,  of  thin  dressed  deer-skin  or  of  the 
moose's  hide  according  to  the  season,  afforded  some  pro- 
tection and  support  to  the  foot. 

The  wigwam^  or  Indian  house,  of  a  circular  or  oval 
Their  shape,  was   made  of  bark  or  mats  laid   over  a 

houses.  framework  of  branches  of  trees  stuck  in  the 
ground  in  such  a  manner  as  to  converge  at  the  top, 
where  was  a  central  aperture  for  the  escape  of  smoke 
from  the  fire  beneath.  The  better  sort  had  also  a  linins: 
of  mats.  For  entrance  and  egress  two  low  openings  were 
left  on  opposite  sides,  one  or  the  other  of  which  was 
closed  with  bark  or  mats,  according  to  the  direction  of 
the  wind. 

For  food  the  natives  had  fish  and  game;  nuts,  roots, 
Their  and  berries,  (and,  in  the  last  resort,  aeorns,)  which 

fooj.  grew  wild  ;  and  a  few  cultivated  vegetables.     In 

the  winter,  they  shot,  or  snared,  or  caught  in  pitfalls,  the 
moose,  the  bear,  and  the  deer ;  in  the  summer,  still  less 
trouble  procured  ^ox  tliem  a  variety  of  birds;  in  both 
seasons,  at  favorable  times,  the  sea  and  the  rivers  afforded 
some  supplies.     Having  no  salt,  they  could  not  preserve 


Chap.  I.]  ABORIGINAL   INHABITANTS.  27 

meat  except  by  fumigation,  or,  for  a  short  time,  by  bury- 
ing in  the  snow.  They  had  not  the  potato,  but  in  the 
ground-nut,  which  they  dug  in  the  woods,  nature  had,  to 
a  limited  extent,  furnished  a  sort  of  substitute.^ 

Tobacco  they  cultivated  for  luxury,  using  it  only  in  the 
way  of  smoking.  For  food,  they  raised  maize,  Ti.eirhor- 
or  Indian  corn,^  the  squash,  the  pumpkin,^  the  '''="'^"f»- 
bean  now  called  Seiva-bean,  and  a  species  of  sun-flower, 
whose  esculent  tuberous  root  resembled  the  artichoke  in 
taste.  It  has  been  asserted,  but  without  probability,  that 
they  had  cucumbers  and  watermelons.^  One  tool  sufficed 
for  their  wretched  husbandry;  a  hoe,  made  of  a  clam- 
shell, or  a  moose's  shoulder-blade,  fastened  into  a  wooden 
handle.  Their  manure  was  fish,  covered  over  in  the  hill 
along  with  the  seed.  When  the  corn  w^as  sufficiently 
advanced,  earth  was  heaped  about  it  to  the  height  of 
some  niches,  for  support  as  well  as  to  extirpate  weeds, 
while  the  bean-vines  were  held  up  by  the  corn-stalk 
around  which  they  twined. 

Fish  were  taken  with  lines   or  nets,    the    cordage  of 
which  was  made  of  twisted  fibres  of  the  dogbane,    Their 
or  of  sinews  of  the  deer.     Hooks  were  fashioned    ''*'""^' 
of  sharpened  bones  of  fishes  and  birds. 

1  What  commonly  goes  by  tliis  name  in  another,  from  the  great  god  Kau- 
at  the  present  time  (otherwise  called  tontowit's  field  in  the  southwest,  from 
pea-nut)  is  a  kind  of  bean,  not  a  native  whence  they  held  came  all  their  corn 
of  New  England.     The  ground-nut  is  and  beans." 

a  tuber,  varying  in  size  from  that  of  a  3  De    Candolle    (Geographle    Bota- 

musket-ball  to  that  of  a  hen's  egg,  and  nique)  denies  both  these  vegetables  to 

when  boiled  or  roasted  is  mealy  and  the  New  World.     But  the  different  tes- 

not  unpalatable.  tiraony  of  Chamj^lain   as  to  Maine  in 

2  Maize  is  not  indigenous  in  New  1604  (Voyage  de  la  Nouvelle  France, 
England,  but  somehow  worked  its  Avay  &c.,  pp.  73,  80,  84)  appears  decisive, 
thither  from  its  unascertained  native  '^  Higginson  (New  England's  Planta- 
country  nearer  the  sun.  According  to  tion,  in  Mass.  Ilist.  Coll.,  I.  118)  gives 
Hutchinson  (I.  420),  there  was  a  tra-  them  the  former;  Josselyn,  the  latter, 
ditiou  that  a  bird  brought  it.  Roger  "  The  watermelon  is  proper  to  tlie 
Williams  (Key  into  the  Language  of  country."  (Account  of  Two  Voyages, 
America,  Chap.  XV.)  reports  the  In-  74,  comp.  130.)  L'Escarbot  (II.  836) 
dians  as  saying  that  "  the  crow  brought  says  that  in  the  time  of  Cartier  they 
them  at  first  an  Indian  grain  of  corn  in  were  cultivated  in  Canada,  not  that 
one  ear,  and  an  Indian  or  French  bean  they  were  indigenous. 


28  HISTOllY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

Flesh  and  fish  were  cooked  by  roasting  before  a  fire 
on  the  point  of  a  stalce,  broiling  on  hot  coals  or  Their 
stones,  or  boiling  in  vessels  of  stone,  earth,  or  '^°^^^^y- 
wood.  Water  was  made  to  boil,  either  by  hanging  the  ves- 
sel over  a  fire,  or  by  the  immersion  in  it  of  heated  stones. 
The  Indians  had  not  the  art  of  making  bread.  They  boiled 
their  corn  either  alone  into  hominy,  or  else  mixed  with 
beans,  in  which  case  the  compound  was  called  succotash; 
or  they  ate  the  parched  kernels  whole  ;  or  with  a  stone  pes- 
tle and  a  wooden  mortar  they  broke  them  up  into  meal, 
which,  moistened  with  water  into  a  paste,  they  called 
nookhilc}  AVith  a  little  of  this  preparation  carried  in  a  bag 
at  the  girdle,  and  a  similar  frugal  outfit  of  tobacco,  they 
were  provisioned  for  a  journey.  Corn  was  laid  up  for 
winter  supply  in  holes  dug  in  the  earth,  and  lined  on  the 
sides,  bottom,  and  top  with  bark.  The  Indian  did  not 
feed  at  regular  hours,  but  whenever  hunger  prompted, 
or  the  state  of  his  supplies  allowed.  He  knew  no  drink 
but  water,  except  when  he  could  flavor  it  with  the  sweet 
juice  for  which  in  spring  he  tapped  the  rock-maple  tree. 

After  the  cordage  which  has  been  mentioned,  the  best 
Their  manii-  spccimeus  of  ludiau  skill  in  manufacture  were 
factures.  baslvcts,  mats,  and  boats.  The  last  were  of  two 
kinds.  One,  made  of  birch-bark  fastened  over  a  light 
wooden  frame,  with  seams  skilfully  and  not  untastefuUy 
secured,  was  not  only  convenient  from  its  lightness  when 
taken  out  of  the  water  to  be  launched  in  another  stream, 
but  c([ually  safe  and  easy  to  manage  in  that  element,  as 
long  as  it  was  kept  clear  of  the  collisions  for  which  its 
frail  structure  was  unfit.  The  other  sort  was  a  log, 
shaped  and  hollowed  by  the  application  first  of  fire, 
and  then  of  rude  stone  tools  acting  upon  the  charred  sur- 
face. A  single  Indian,  it  was  said,  probably  with  some 
exaggeration,  would  finish  a  boat  of  this  kind,  twenty 
or  tliirty  feet  long,  in  three  weeks  from  his  choice  of  the 

1  NooKltik,  meal,  (ICliot's  Indi;in  Bible,)   was  corrupted  by  the  English  into 


Chap.  I.]  ABORIGINAL  INHABITANTS.  29 

tree  to  the  end  of  the  alternate  burnings  and  scrapings 
by  which  it  was  first  felled  and  then  wrought  into 
form. 

His  axe,  hatchet,  chisel,  and  gouge  were  of  hard  stone, 
brought  to  a  sort  of  edge  by  friction  upon  an-  xiieirtoois, 
other  stone.  The  helve  of  the  axe  or  hatchet  "elus^'aiid 
was  attached  either  by  a  cord  drawn  tight  around  '""'■'"^"'■^• 
a  groove  in  the  stone,  or  by  being  cleft  while  still  unsev- 
ered  from  the  tree,  and  left  to  grow  till  it  closed  fast 
round  the  inserted  tool.  Bows  were  strung  with  the 
sinews  and  twisted  entrails  of  the  moose  and  the  deer. 
Arrows  were  tipped  with  bone,  with  claws  of  the  larger 
species  of  birds,  or  with  those  artificially  shaped  trian- 
gular pieces  of  flint,  which  are  now  often  found  in  the 
fields.  Spears  w^re  of  similar  contrivance.  Besides  the 
stone  hatchet  as  a  weapon  of  ofience,  was  the  tomahawk^ 
which  was  merely  a  wooden  club,  two  feet  or  more  in 
length,  terminating  in  a  heavy  knob.  Mats  served  as 
hangings  for  houses,  and,  with  or  without  skins  according 
to  the  season,  as  couches  for  repose,  for  which  latter  use 
they  were  laid  upon  wooden  supports  a  foot  or  two  from  the 
ground.  Vessels  of  basket-work,  of  baked  earth,  or  of 
hollowed  wood  or  stone,  completed  the  scanty  inventory 
of  household  furniture.  Personal  ornaments  consisted  of 
greasy  paint  laid  in  streaks  upon  the  skin ;  of  mantles 
and  head-gear  made  of  feathers ;  of  ear-rings,  nose-rings, 
bracelets,  and  necklaces  of  bone,  shells,  or  shining  stones ; 
and  of  pieces  of  native  copper,  sometimes  in  plates,  some- 
times strung  together  so  as  to  make  a  kind  of  fringe. 
The  pipe,  with  its  bowl  of  soft  stone  set  upon  a  stem  of 
hard  wood  two  feet  long,  and  often  elaborately  carved 
and  ornamented,  was  a  personal  object  of  special  con- 
sideration. The  precious  metals  were  unknown,  as  well 
as  the  preparation  of  the  ores  of  those  employed  in  the 
useful  arts. 

The  Indian  of  this  region  had  taught  no  animal  to  re- 
3* 


30  HISTORY  OF  NEW  EXGLAKD.  [Book  T. 

liere  his  labor  by  its  agility,  cunning,  or  strength.     Not 
only  had  he  no  workino;  cattle  :  he  had  no  flock 

Their  want  •'  i  i  • 

of  domestic  noi*  hcixl,  noi'  any  poultry.  The  only  animal  he 
had  attached  to  himself  was  a  sort  of  native  dog, 
resembling  a  cross  between  the  fox  and  the  wolf."  It 
was  probably  only  the  lazy  sharer  of  his  cabin  and  play- 
mate of  his  children,  and  not  trained  to  be  useful  either 
as  a  sentinel  or  in  the  chase.^ 

Generally  he  had   only  one  wife,  though  no  rule  or 
fixed  custom  forbade  polyf]jamy.      If,  after  trial. 

Their  do-  ,  1       J  &         ./  '        ^  ' 

mesticreia-  tlio  counectiou  provcd  unsatisfactory,  it  might 
be  dissolved  at  the  will  of  either  party ;  nor  was 
there  anything  disreputable  in  a  frequent  repetition  of 
this  proceeding.  Eut  so  long  as  she  shared  his  cabin,  the 
wife  was  the  husband's  drudge  and  slave.  She  covered 
and  lined  the  wigwam,  and  carried  away  its  materials  when 
it  was  to  be  set  up  in  another  spot.  She  bore  home  the 
game  he  had  taken  ;  plaited  the  mats  and  baskets ;  plant- 
ed, tended,  and  harvested  the  corn  and  vegetables ;  and 
cooked  the  food.  In  the  frequent  migrations,  she  con- 
veyed, fastened  to  a  board  on  her  back,  the  child,  which, 
in  consequence  of  her  hardy  habits,  or  of  a  kind  dispen- 
sation of  nature,  she  had  borne,  perhaps  within  a  week, 
with  little  pain.  Her  toils  were  relieved  by  no  sympathy, 
and  requited  with  no  tenderness ;  the  leavings  of  the  feast, 

1  Of  course  he  had  no  fleeces  to  where,  and  I  think  he  was  in  error, 
•wear.  And  of  course  he  did  not  vary  "When  he  was  first  here,  in  1638,  he 
liis  diet  with  either  milk  or  eggs,  except  had  Httle  time  for  observation,  and  be- 
tlic  eggs  of  wild-fowl.  It  must  have  fore  his  second  visit,  in  16G3,  the  set- 
been  of  these  that  Waymouth  saw  the  tiers  had  largely  introduced  their  own 
shells.  (True  Relation,  in  ]\Iass.  llist.  arts  and  customs.  Nothing  on  the  sub- 
Coll.,  XXVIU.  133.)  ject  can  be  inferred   from  the  alarm 

2  So  it  is  described  by  JosseljTi,  who  said  to  have  been  given  by  a  dog  at  the 
was  a  naturalist.  (Account  of  Two  attack  on  the  Pequod  fort.  And  such 
Voyages,  &c.,  04.)  was  the  Indian's  mode  of  warfare,  that 

3  Josselyn  says  (Ibid.)  that  the  dogs  he  would  be  more  fearful  of  having  his 
were  brought  up  to  hunt,  and  he  some-  own  approaches  betrayed  by  his  brute 
where  rejx'ats  the  statement.  But  I  companions,  than  desirous  to  be  secured 
have  met  with  nothing  of  the  kind  else-  by  their  vigilance  against  surprise. 


CiiAP.  I]  ABORIGINAL  INHABITANTS.  31 

the  resting-place  most  exposed  to  the  weather,  were  what 
fell  to  her  share. 

Both  parental  and  filial  affection  were  feeble  and  tran- 
sient. Where  there  was  no  process  of  education  to  be  car- 
ried on,  and  the  favorable  introduction  of  the  young  into 
life  depended  little  on  the  care  of  elders,  there  was  small 
occasion  for  solicitude  or  authority  on  the  one  side,  or  for 
reverence  or  gratitude  on  the  other.  After  the  young 
man  was  able  to  hunt  and  fish  for  his  own  living,  the  tie 
which  bound  him  to  the  authors  of  his  being  scarcely 
continued  to  be  recognized  on  either  side. 

It  is  not  known  that  there  were  formal  ceremonies  of 
burial,  any  more  than  of  marriage.  Bodies  were  Their 
placed  in  the  ground  in  a  sitting  or  a  recumbent  ''"'■'*'^' 
posture  ;  nor  was  it  found  that  any  tribe  was  distinguished 
from  others  by  a  uniform  practice  of  its  own  in  this  re- 
spect. No  method  of  embalming  was  in  use.  With  the 
dead  were  sometimes  interred  his  arms,  his  personal  orna- 
ments, and  some  articles  of  food. 

No  condition  of  society  can  be  imagined  so  simple  as  to 
afford  absolutely  no  occasion  for  an  exchange  of  Their  trade 
commodities.  Wherever  men  meet,  at  least  a  ^'"i"'0"e>'- 
rude  barter  will  naturally  take  place.  The  hunter  return- 
ing from  the  woods  will  give  a  bear-skin  for  a  basket  of 
corn.  But  before  the  arrival  of  the  planters  in  New  Eng- 
land some  of  the  natives  had  advanced  so  far  as  to  use 
a  circulating  medium  for  trade.  In  the  absence  of  gold 
and  silver,  they  adopted  a  currency  of  what  was  called 
ivampum  or  wanqnimpeag.  It  consisted  of  cylindrical  pie- 
ces of  the  shells  of  testaceous  fishes,  a  quarter  of  an  inch 
long  and  in  diameter  less  than  a  pipe-stem,  drilled  length- 
wise so  as  to  be  strung  upon  a  thread.  The  beads  of  a 
white  color,  rated  at  half  ^  the  value  of  the  black  or  violet, 
passed  each  as  the  equivalent  of  a  farthing  in  transactions 

I  AVilliamson  (Histor}'  of  Maine,  I.     statement  in  the  text  is  that  of  Gookin 
50G)   says  just  the  reverse.      But  the     (Mass.  Illst.  Coll.,  I.  152),  who  had  han- 


32  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  L 

between  the  natives  and  the  planters.  They  were  used  for 
ornament  as  well  as  for  com,  and  ten  thousand  have  been 
known  to  be  wrought  mto  a  single  war-belt  four  inches 
wide.  They  are  said  to  have  been  an  invention  and  man- 
ufacture of  the  Narragansetts,  and  from  them  to  have 
come  into  circulation  among  the  other  tribes. 

Property,  and  the  industry  which  amasses  it  and  which 
Their  indo-  ^^  stimulatcs,  are  the  instruments  of  civilization, 
lent  habits.  ^;Y[^\^  little  that  could  be  called  property,  and 
little  desire  for  it,  the  New-England  savage  was  the  most 
indolent  of  men.  An  improvidence  almost  idiotic  led  to 
an  almost  utter  sloth.  When  not  engaged  in  war  or 
hunting,  he  would  pass  whole  weeks  in  sleep,  or  sitting 
silent  with  his  elbows  on  his  knees. ^  He  had  not  energy 
to  cleanse  his  wigwam,  where  was  a  conglomeration  of 
odious  filth,  to  which  the  condition  of  the  persons  of  its 
occupants  was  far  from  presenting  a  contrast.  A  game 
of  football,  in  which  he  was  expert,  or  of  quoits,  or  a 
wrestling-bout,  or  a  dance  in  which  women  did  not  min- 
gle, afforded  some  occasional  variety.  The  fumes  of  to- 
bacco yielded  a  sort  of  dreamy  exhilaration.  But  his  emi- 
Theiriove  Hcut  lesourcc  was  the  same  as  that  of  all  other 
and dm'nk^  pcoplc,  civiUzcd  or  savage,  who  seek  escape  from 
enness.  intolerable  inactivity.  He  was  a  desperate  gam- 
bler. He  would  stake  his  arms,  the  wrapping  of  furs 
that  covered  him,  his  stock  of  winter  provisions,  his  cabin, 
his  wife,  finally  his  personal  liberty,  on  the  chances  of 
play.  Destitute  of  the  means  of  drunkenness  till  he  was 
tempted  by  the  stranger,  he  plunged  as  soon  as  he  had 
opportunity  into  desperate  excess  in  drinking. 

died  the  wampum  as  a  currency.    Comp.  and  the  reply  •Nvcre  as  follcn-s  :   "  Xot 

Morton  CSi-w  Eiiglisli  Canaan,  Book  I.  to  do  any  unnecessary    work   on   tlic 

Ch.  XII.);  Williams  (Key,  Ch.  XXIV.).  Sabbath-day,  especially  within  the  gates 

1  In  1044,  the  magistrates  of  Massa-  of  Christian  towns.  —  Answer.  It  is  easy 

chusetts  took  the  engagement  of  some  to  them  ;  they  liavc  not  much  to  do  on 

Indians  to  keep  the  ten  commandments  any  day,  and  they  can  well  take  their 

of  the  I)e<alogue.    When  they  came  to  ease    on    that    day."      (Massachusetts 

Uie  fourth  commandment,  the  proposal  Colonial  Records,  il.  56.) 


Chap.  I.]  ABORIGINAL  INHABITANTS.  33 

What  little  there  was  in  him  of  mental  development  or 
action  was  in  harmonious  relation  with  the  con-  Their  inven- 
diti'ons  of  his  life.  A  narrow  ingenuity  effected  *'°"^" 
something  in  the  way  of  provision  for  his  necessities  and 
convenience.  His  European  neighbors  observed  the  skill 
of  some  of  his  devices  for  fishing,  as  that  of  the  scoop- 
net,  the  cylindrical  basket,  and  the  waving  of  torches  over 
the  water  to  attract  to  the  surface  the  larger  fish,  there  to 
be  struck  by  a  spear.  His  snow-shoes  for  travelling  in 
winter,  and  his  method  of  dressing  the  skins  of  animals 
with  the  brains,  were  inventions  found  worthy  of  adop- 
tion. His  habits  as  a  hunter  and  a  warrior  demanded 
and  provided  a  peculiar  discipline  for  that  class  of  the 
faculties  which  the  phrenologists  call  ^wrceptive.  His 
quick  sense  readily  detected  changes  in  the  appearance  of 
surrounding  objects,  and  discerned  their  bearing  on  the 
purpose  of  the  hour.  He  tracked  his  game  or  his  enemy 
by  indications  on  the  surface  of  the  ground,  in  the  mo- 
tions of  trees,  in  faint  sounds  without  significance  to  an- 
other ear.  No  wonders  of  nature  or  of  art  stimulated  his 
dull  curiosity,  or  lighted  up  his  vacant  eye.  But  while 
his  own  countenance  was  rarely  seen  to  express  emotion, 
he  was  skilled  to  read  the  passions  of  others  in  their 
aspect. 

Beyond  this  little  range,  it  is  surprising  to  observe  how 
destitute  he  was  of  mental  culture  or  capacity.  ^^ . 

^  -'       Their  music. 

The  proceedings  of  the  second  generation  before  dancing,  and 

.  eloquence. 

his  own  were  as  unknown  to  him  as  the  events 
of  the  ancient  world.  In  ballads,  songs,  or  some  other 
rhythmical  form  of  legend,  most  communities  inherit  some 
kindling  traditions  of  the  past.  The  New-England  In- 
dian had  nothing  of  the  kind,  nor  of  any  other  poetry. 
He  had  no  instrument  of  music,  till  he  learned  from  his 
invaders  to  construct  a  rude  drum,^  and  it  was  even 
hard  to  detect  any  measure  in  his  songs  of  festivity  or 

1  Roger  Williams,  Key,  Chap.  III. 


3-4  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

of  war ;  they  were  not  so  much  chants  as  howls  and  yells. 
If  he  drew  lines  and  figures  on  trees  and  rocks,  they  might 
be  for  use  in  guiding  him  through  the  labyrinth  of  the 
forest,  and  possibly,  in  rare  instances,  for  chronicles  and 
memorials,  but  never  were  essays  in  a  fine  art.  The 
nearest  thing  to  a  work  of  imagination  of  which  he  was 
observed  to  be  capable  was  the  war-dance,  which  was  not 
an  amusement  but  a  solemnity,  consisting  of  a  grotesque 
dramatic  representation  of  the  proceedings  of  a  campaign  ; 
the  muster,  the  march,  the  ambush,  the  slaughter,  the  re- 
treat, the  reception  at  home,  the  torture  and  massacre  of 
prisoners.  There  has  been  a  disposition  to  attribute  to 
the  red  man  the  power  of  eloquent  speech.  Never  was 
a  reputation  so  cheaply  earned.  A  few  allusions  to  fa- 
miliar appearances  in  nature,  and  to  habits  of  animals,  con- 
stitute nearly  all  his  topics  for  oratorical  illustration.  Take 
away  his  commonplaces  of  the  mountain  and  the  thunder, 
the  sunset  and  the  waterfall,  the  eagle  and  the  buffalo, 
the  burying  of  the  hatchet,  the  smoking  of  the  calumet, 
and  the  lighting  of  the  council-fire,  and  the  material  for 
his  pomp  of  words  is  reduced  within  contemptible  dimen- 
sions. His  best  attempts  at  reasoning  or  persuasion  have 
been  his  simplest  statements  of  facts,  themselves  some- 
times, no  doubt,  sufficiently  affecting.  But  whatever  may 
be  thought  of  those  most  favorable  specimens  of  his  ora- 
tory in  other  parts  of  North  America,  which  must  be 
allowed  to  be  for  the  most  part  of  doubtful  authenticity, 
certain  it  is  that  there  is  no  recorded  harangue  of  a 
New-England  Indian  which  can  assert  a  claim  to  praise. 
Occasions  enough  occurred  for  creditable  exhibitions  in 
this  field.  But  the  gift  of  impressive  speech  was  not 
his.i 


*  The  host  Indian  speech  on  record  ginia."      But,  not  to   urpe  the  unccr- 

is  Lo^'an's  comijlaiiit  of  (lie  murder  of  tainty  as  to  how  much  of  it  is  Logan, 

liis  family    l)y   Colonel  Cresap   at  the  and  how  much  JefTerson,  its  pathos  is 

mouth  of  the  Kcnawha,  as  reported  by  simply  that  of  the  ill-treatment  which  it 

Mr.  Jellersori   in   his  "Notes  on  Vir-  relates.      Of  lied  Jacket,  the  famous 


Chap.  I]  ABORIGINAL  INHABITANTS.  35 

With  such  vital  defects  of  understanding,  we  do  not 
expect  to  find  that  he  had  accomphshcd  anything  T,,g;j 
in  the  way  of  scientific  observation  or  discovery.  ^"^"««- 
The  treatment  of  disease  is  a  matter  which  forces  itself 
upon  attention.  The  Indians  had  learned  the  medicinal 
virtues  of  a  few  simples  ;  they  bound  up  wounds  in  bark 
with  mollifying  preparations  of  leaves ;  and  they  practised 
a  cure  of  fevers  by  opening  the  pores  of  the  skin  with  a 
vapor-bath.  Beyond  a  few  such  methods  their  therapeu- 
tics consisted  of  the  grossest  nonsense  and  imposture. 
The  nervous  system,  agitated  by  physical  or  moral  stimu- 
lants, is  capable  of  exerting  a  marvellous  action,  bene- 
ficial, neutral,  or  mischievous,  as  it  may  turn  out,  on  the 
rest  of  the  frame ;  and  the  medicine-man  or  2>owoiv,  while 
he  acquired  the  credit  of  having  wrenched  with  his  clam- 
ors and  charms  one  patient  from  the  jaws  of  death,  could 
not  be  confidently  charged  with  having  consigned  to  them 
another  by  the  same  mummery.  Of  numbers  the  New- 
England  native  scarcely  knew  more  than  he  could  tell  off 
on  his  fingers  ;  ^  his  frequently  recurring  rhetoric  respect- 
ing the  sands  on  the  beach  and  the  leaves  in  the  forest 
was  the  natural  shift  of  his  arithmetical  unskilfulness. 


Seneca  orator,  one  point  for  commenda-  quarter.     Yet  even  of  such  poor  pro- 

tion  was  well  selected  by  his  eulogist :  ducts  as  these,  the  mind  of  the  native  of 

"There's  one  rare,  strange  virtue  in  thy  speeches,  New  England  was  barren. 

The  secret  of  their  mastery; -they  are  shun."  1   Wood,   however,    (New   England's 

As  to  traditionary  legends,  the  beauti-  Prospect,  Appendix,)  gives  their  num- 

ful  verse  of  Longfellow  does  but  robe  bers  up  to  twenty,  John  Eliot  (Mass. 

their    beggarly   meanness   in   cloth   of  Hist.  Coll.,  XIX.    261)  up  to  a  thou- 

gold.    Of  what  they  owe  to  that  exquis-  sand,  and  Roger  Williams  (Key,  Chap, 

ite  poet,  it  Is  easy  to  satisfy  one's  self  by  IV.)  up  to  a  hundred  thousand.     But 

collating  the  raw  material  of  his  work,  this  last  numeration,  attributed  to  the 

as  it  stands  in  such  authorities  as  Heck-  Narragansetts,    is    plainly    incredible  ; 

ewelder  and  Schoolcraft.      The  results  and  I  cannot  but  regard  both  Williams's 

of  the  "  Algic  Researches  "  are  a  collec-  table,  and  Eliot's  statement  of  the  nu- 

tion  of  the  most  vapid  and  stupid  compo-  meration  of  the  INIohegans,  as  framed  by 

sitions  that  ever  disappointed  a  laborious  themselves  on  analogies,  known  to  them, 

curiosity ;  but  they  were  the  best  collec-  of  Indian  etymology,  rather  than  Intend- 

tion  that,  under  the  most  favorable  cir-  ed  as  representations  of  words  actually 

cumstances,  was  to  be   made   in   that  in  use. 


86  IIISTOUV   OF   NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

Though  he  passed  most  of  his  life  under  the  open  sky, 
it  was  not  ascertained  tliat  his  observations  extended  to 
any  grouping  of  the  stars.^  He  had  no  approximate  for- 
mula for  the  year.  Tlie  lunar  changes  could  not  fiiil  to 
be  observed,  and  the  months  of  vegetation  were  distin- 
guished by  their  productions ;  but  it  is  not  known  that 
the  colder  months  were  discriminated  in  any  way,  or  that 
there  was  any  division  into  weekly  periods  corresponding 
to  tlie  quarterings  of  the  moon.  Days  were  so  many 
sleepings  and  wakings.  In  the  absence  of  more  minute 
divisions  of  the  day,  there  were  only  those  that  were 
marked  by  sunrise,  noon,  and  sunset. 

It  cannot  surprise  the  considerate  inquirer  to  find  in- 
consistencies   in    the    testimony    from    different 

Their  civil  _  ^  •' 

Btateaiui       sourccs    rcspcctiug    the    civil    state    and   govern- 

governiiient.  t  *'   t      i       i  i 

ment  oi  these  savages,  it  little  has  been  trans- 
mitted that  is  dctinite  and  trustworthy,  the  main  reason 
is,  that  little  of  social  order  and  organization  that  was 
definite  and  durable  at  any  time  existed.  The  Indian 
did  not  need  much  government,  and  his  manner  of  life 
did  not  admit  of  his  being  much  subjected  to  its  control. 
In  his  solitary  cabin  each  head  of  a  family,  a  patriarch 
after  the  type  of  the  Filmer  school,  was  naturally  the 
tyrant  of  his  natural  dependents.  In  his  stealthy  wan- 
derings in  the  woods  after  game,  he  rarely  met  with  other 
wanderers  to  molest  him,  or  for  him  to  molest.     If  he  fell 

•  Waymouth's     companion,     Rosier,  low  (Good  Newcs,  &c.,  CO)  says,  "They 

says,  "  They  liave  names  for  many  stai's"  know  divers  of  the  stars  by  name."    But 

(Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  XXVIII.  \i>(j)  ;  and  he  gives  no  other  instanee  than  that  of 

perhaps  he  is  right.     But  he  is  not  so  the  North  Star,  which  he  says  they  call 

good   an  authority  as  he  would  have  the  Bear.     The  partial  Williams  (Key, 

appeared    to   be   but    for    some   other  Chap.   XII.)   says,    "  They   nmch  ob- 

statements.      For   instance,   presuming  serve  the  stars,  and  their  very  children 

on  the  small  danger  of  being  contradict-  can  give  names  to  many  of  them  " ;  and 

ed,  he  says  (Ibid.),  "  They  make  butter  he  adds  that  they  give  to  the  constella- 

and  cheese  of  the  milk  they  liave  of  the  tion  of  Ursa  ]\Iajor  their  own  name  for 

reindeer  and  fallow  deer,   which  they  the  bear,  and  that  they  designate  the 

have  tame,  as  we   have  cows."     It  is  morning  star  and  two  others, 
much  more  to  the  purpose  that  Wins- 


Chap.  I.]  ABORIGINAL  INHABITANTS.  37 

in  with  a  lonely  wigwam,  it  received  him  with  hospitality 
(for  hospitality  is  the  universal  virtue  of  lazy  and  unset- 
tled people),  and  freely  gave  him  a  share  in  all  that  it 
possessed ;  and  it  possessed  nothing  to  tempt  his  cupidity 
cither  to  craft  qr  to  violence.  An  advanced  state  of  soci- 
ety requires  an  elaborate  system  of  laws  and  administration 
to  protect  life,  liberty,  reputation,  and  property.  In  the 
wilds  through  which  he  roamed,  the  Indian  might  be  left 
to  defend  his  own  life  with  his  own  arm,  and  that  of  his 
kindred  by  fear  of  his  vengeance,  without  danger  of  those 
disorders  which  would  follow  on  acts  of  individual  vio- 
lence committed  in  crowds  of  men.  There  could  be  no 
motive  for  restraining  his  liberty  except  to  make  him 
serviceable,  and  this  design  would  be  manifestly  too  vis- 
ionary to  call  for  precautions.  Sensibility  to  reputation 
is  a  factitious  tenderness,  not  belonging  to  his  social  po- 
sition or  his  range  of  thought.  And  of  property,  which 
occasions  most  of  the  litigations  of  civilized  man,  he  had 
very  little  to  require  protection.  Personal  ownership  of 
land  was  a  conception  which  had  not  risen  on  his  mind, 
and  his  few  articles  of  movable  wealth  were  such  as 
would  scarcely  repay  the  trouble  of  a  theft,  and  such  as, 
if  stolen,  it  would  be  less  troublesome  to  supply  anew 
than  to  reclaim. 

Under  these  circumstances,  there  was  small  scope  for 
the  interior  functions  of  government.  An  intricate  appa- 
ratus was  not  needed  for  the  adjustment  of  disputes  which 
were  alike  of  infrequent  occurrence,  and  of  trifling  con- 
sequence, whether  to  the  community  or  to  the  parties. 
Such  as  arose  would  be  settled  by  time  and  accident,  or 
by  advice  and  arbitration ;  or  they  might  be  left  unsettled 
without  serious  damage ;  or  they  would  be  fought  out  be- 
tween the  disputants.  And  in  fact  there  is  no  evidence 
that  the  Indians  of  New  England  ever  possessed  what,  in 
the  loosest  construction  of  the  phrase,  might  be  termed  a 
code  of  laws,  or  any  set  of  customs  having  the  force  of 
lec^al  oblimxtion. 


38  mSTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

But  in  respect  to  foreign  relations,  if  of  such  communi- 
ties tliat  plirase  may  be  used,  the  case  was  different.  For 
the  protection  of  life  and  of  hunting-grounds  against  an 
enemy,  it  was  necessary  that  there  should  be  unity  of 
counsel  and  of  action  in  a  tribe,  and  that  there  should 
be  some  central  authority  to  exercise  foresight  and  over- 
sight for  the  common  weal. 

The  New-England  Indians  had  functionaries  for  such 

purposes ;  the  higher  class  known  as  sachems,  the 

cheinsand     subordiuatc,  or  those  of  inferior  note  or  smaller 

sagamores.       .        .     , .       .  .      -^^  .  i         /»    i 

jurisdiction,  as  sagamores.^  How  the  rank  of  these 
chiefs  was  obtained,  it  would  be  fruitless  to  inquire,  with 
any  expectation  of  finding  a  uniform  rule  or  principle  of  ad- 
vancement. Associations  of  respect  and  confidence  would 
naturally  gather  about  the  family  of  the  ruling  chief,  and 
pride  would  be  saved  from  offence,  and  rivalries  which 
the  state  is  interested  to  escape  would  be  avoided,  through 
a  common  understanding  that  an  heir  of  his  blood  should 
at  his  death  succeed  to  his  authority.  But  such  consid- 
erations would  not  countervail  an  obvious  incapacity  to 
govern.  Administration  may  go  on  safely  and  prosperous- 
ly among  a  civilized  people,  though  its  limited  monarch 
be  a  child  or  a  fool.  The  Indian  polity  had  none  of  the 
machinery  for  such  a  fiction.  Whenever  it  was  manifest 
that  the  ruler  was  personally  incompetent,  it  would  be 
manifestly  necessary  that  he  should  withdraw;  and  the 
ready  resource  would  be  to  fill  his  place  with  a  person 
next  or  near  to  him  in  similar  advantages  of  birth  and 
position.  Personal  popularity,  however  won,  would  nat- 
urally be  an  element  in  the  choice ;  and,  in  some  strong 
instance  of  notorious  incapacity  on  the  one  hand,  and  of 
distinguished  endowment  on  the  other,  it  would  not  be 

^  This  is  the  distinction  commonly  with   us   called,   as   they   are  sachems 

made  (Hutchinson,  ]\Ias9.,  I.  410).    But  southward"    (that   is,    in    riyniouth) ; 

"Williamson  (Maine,  I.  494)  reverses  it;  and  Gookin  (Mass.  Ilist.  Coll.,  I.  154) 

Dudley  (Letter  to  the  Countess  of  Lin-  speaks   of  the   two   titles  of  oflice   as 

coin)  says,  "  Sar/anwre,  so  are  the  kings  c(iuivalent. 


Chap.  L]  ABORIGINAL  INHABITANTS.  39 

surprising  to  find  the  line  of  hereditary  prescription  en- 
tirely overstepped.  The  difficulty  or  impossibility  of  gov- 
erning such  subjects,  except  with  the  advantage  of  their 
personal  good-will,  would  deter  aspirants  from  seeking  an 
eminence  grudgingly  accorded ;  and  in  the  want  of  a  gen- 
eral and  strong  interest  in  the  question  of  a  succession 
where  there  were  no  important  rights  hazarded  and  no 
power  of  patronage  to  be  seized,  and  the  consequent  diffi- 
culty of  rallying  a  party  for  his  support,  the  unacceptable 
candidate  would  have  small  inducement  to  prosecute  his 
claim.  Among  the  many  wars  of  these  savages,  we  hear 
of  no  civil  war  for  a  disputed  succession. 

The  sachem  was  not  necessarily  the  captain  of  his  tribe 
in  war.  As  far  as  there  was  command,  it  seems  rather 
to  have  fallen  by  common  consent  from  time  to  time  to 
him  who  was  recognized  as  the  most  capable  and  experi- 
enced warrior.  To  the  sachem  it  would  naturally  belong 
to  receive  and  send  envoys,  to  collect  Intelligence,  to  con- 
voke assemblies  for  consultation,  to  circulate  information 
and  directions.  Whatever  in  theory  or  in  pretension 
might  be  his  authority,  its  exertion  would  practically  be 
so  dependent  on  the  cheerful  acquiescence  of  his  people, 
that  he  would  be  careful  to  be  mainly  influenced  by  their 
wishes ;  and  thus  the  spirit  of  a  democracy  would  pervade 
the  public  counsels.  As  the  honored  depositary  of  a  de- 
gree of  power,  some  private  controversies  would  naturally 
find  their  way  to  him ;  and  his  determination  of  them, 
if  it  did  not  coerce  a  settlement,  would  place  the  worsted 
party  in  a  disadvantageous  posture  for  further  strife.  He 
expected  his  maintenance  from  the  free  contributions  of 
his  subjects,  and,  when  it  was  not  offered,  he  asserted  a 
right  to  take  it  by  force.  Sometimes  sachems  were  of  the 
female  sex.  If,  as  has  been  supposed,  hereditary  authority 
was  by  a  permanent  rule  transmitted  in  the  maternal  line, 
this  could  at  most  have  been  only  a  peculiarity  of  some 
tribes. 


40  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

Nothing  in  the  natural  history  of  man  is  more  sur- 
Theirian-  prising  than  the  completeness,  artificial  structure, 
guages.  ^j^j  essential  uniformity  of  the  shapes  of  his  lan- 
guage. From  civilized  to  half  brutal,  from  Greek  to 
Bushman,  from  English  to  Esquimaux,  every  people  con- 
verses with  the  same  general  apparatus  of  the  same  mar- 
vellous faculty  of  vocal  expression.  Christian  missionaries 
had  no  sooner  learned  the  dialects  of  the  Cherokee  and 
the  Sandwich-Islander,  than  they  digested  them  into  gram- 
mars conformed  to  our  analogies. 

Comparative  philology,  in  the  present  state  of  that 
science,  recognizes  three  great  classes  of  languages:  the 
monosi/Uabic,  the  agglutinating^  and  the  infiecting.  Of  the 
first  class,  which  indicates  the  relations  of  ideas  by  the 
equivocal  method  of  a  mere  juxtaposition  of  words  in 
a  sentence  with  their  form  unaltered,  the  Chinese  is  the 
typc.^  The  inflecting  languages,  which  indicate  the  mod- 
ifications and  relations  of  ideas  by  conjugations,  declen- 
sions, and  other  like  forms,  and  constitute  a  consummate 
vehicle  of  thought,  are  those  which  have  been  perfect- 
ed in  the  use  of  the  civilized  nations  of  the  Caucasian 
stock.  The  agglutinating  languages^  occupy  a  middle 
place  between  these  two  classes.  Their  peculiarity  is  that 
they  express  relations  of  ideas  by  stringing  words  together 
in  one  compound  vocable.  They  are  spoken  in  a  large 
part  of  Asia,  in  a  small  part  of  Southeastern  Europe,  and 
by  the  aborigines  throughout  the  American  continent.^ 

The  language  of  the  New-England  tribes,''  full  of  con- 

^  Diiponceau,    Chinese    System    of  have  tliis  fact  from  Professor  FeUon, 

Writing    (in    the   Transactions  of  the  "who  mentioned  it  in  liis  leai-ned  lectures 

American     Pliilosopliical     Society    for  before  the  Lowell  Institute  of  Boston  in 

1838,  pp.  x.\xi,  xxxii  )  18.54. 

2  i\Ir.  Dui)onceau  and  Mr.  Gallatin  ^  The  Iavo  preat  early  authorities  for 
name  tlusm  pi)l>/sijnllietic,  and  Wilhelm  the  dialects  of  New  En<rland  are  Roger 
Humboldt  iiirnrporatinfj.  Williams's  "  Key  "  to  the  Narrapansett 

3  A  special  type  of  lanjruarres  of  this  language,  and  John  Eliot's  "  Indian 
class  has  been  found  by  the  missionaries  Grammar,"  which  relates  to  the  speech 
in    Southern  and  Western  Africa.      I  of  the    IMassachusetts  family.      Eliot's 


Chap.  I.]  ABORIGINAL  INHABITANTS.  41 

sonants,  and  harsh,  like  that  of  the  rest  of  the  Algon- 
quins,  proved  in  the  analysis  to  possess  every  Their^ram- 
part  of  speech  which  we  recognize,  except  per-  '"'-"'cai 
haps  the  indefinite  article,  a  want  which  it  shared 
with  the  elaborate  classical  tongues.  The  adjective,  how- 
ever, generally  appeared  only  as  incorporated  with  the 
verb,  or,  to  phrase  this  differently,  there  was  a  copious 
variety  of  verbs  to  express  various  qualities  in  the  subject 
or  object.  The  characteristic  of  the  class  to  which  this 
dialect  has  been  referred  so  pervaded  it,  that  it  was  not 
so  much  rich  in  compound  words  as  composed  of  them ; 
m  Eliot's  Indian  Primer,  there  are  words  of  fifteen  sylla- 
bles.^ It  was  flexible  and  capacious  to  that  degree  that 
it  had  forms  of  the  verb  to  express  the  causative,  the  fre- 
quentative, the  reflexive,  and  other  modifications  of  action. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  wanted  the  substantive  verb,  and  so 
could  not  convey  the  idea  of  existence,  independent  of 
some  accompanying  condition  or  circumstance.  Like  our 
own  tongue,  it  designated  the  plural  number  of  nouns 
by  a  suflix.  It  did  not  discriminate  the  gender  of  either 
nouns  or  pronouns ;  the  words  for  he  and  she  were  the 
same,  and  the  words  for  him  and  her.  But  in  place  of  this 
distinction  was  one,  which  languages  exact  in  the  discrim- 
ination of  gender  have  not,  answering  to  the  difference 
between  sentient,  or  personal,  and  neuter,  or  inanimate; 
and  this  was  denoted  in  both  numbers  by  difterences  of 
termination,  analogous  to  the  inflections  which  mark  the 
masculine  and  feminine  in  other  languages.  This  dis- 
tinction of  verbal  forms,  however,  did  not  without  excep- 

translation    of    the    Bible    is    an    im-  tury,  are  of  great  authenticity  and  value 

mense   storehouse   of   their    language,  from  his  peculiar  opportunities  of  infor- 

A  large  vocabulary  has  also  been  hand-  mation. 

ed  down,  prepared  early  in  the  last  ccn-  l  "  This  is  wonderful  in  their  tongue, 

tury,  by   Josiah   Cotton  of  Plymouth,  that  sometimes  one  syllable  spreads  the 

The  "  Observations "  of  Jonathan  Ed-  virtue  of  its  signification  through   the 

wards,  the  younger,  on  the  Mohegan  whole   sentence."   (President  Dunster, 

dialect,  though  belonging  to  so  late  a  Letter  to  Professor  liavis,  in  Mass.  Hist, 

time  as  the  last  quarter  of  the  last  cen-  Coll.,  XXXI.  253.) 
4  * 


42  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

tion  follow  that  of  nature.  The  stars  and  some  other  in- 
animate objects  belonged  verbally  to  the  animate  class ; 
an  anomaly  similar  to  Avhat  occurs  in  the  application  of 
masculine  and  feminine  forms  in  inflecting  languages. 

Like  ourselves,  the  Indians  for  the  most  part  marked 
only  one  case  with  a  special  termination,  though  occa- 
sionally a  vocative  form  also  appeared.  The  most  com- 
mon relations  they  had  no  means  of  expressing  abstract- 
ly. They  could  speak  of  a  hatchet^  as  was  necessary, 
because  they  might  not  know  its  owner ;  but  not  of  a  fa- 
ther, son,  head,  or  hand,  except  as  w?j/,  yoiir^  or  his  father, 
and  so  on.  As  in  a  Syriac  idiom,  before  the  noun,  when 
introduced  as  the  object  of  an  action,  its  appropriate  pro- 
noun was  inserted ;  as,  "  John  loves  him  Peter."  Though 
there  were  a  past  and  a  future  tense,  the  present  was  often 
employed  in  their  place,  perhaps  for  the  liveliness  of  its 
eftect.  With  an  imperfect  resemblance  to  the  dual  of 
the  Greek,  Hebrew,  and  other  languages,  2i  particular  plu- 
ral was  used,  distinguishing  few  from  many.  As  in  the 
Shemitic  languages,  the  root  of  the  verb  was  in  the  third 
person  singular  of  the  indicative ;  but  it  was  in  the  present, 
not  the  p¥eterite  tense.  There  were  no  relative  pronouns.^ 
The  adjective  had  no  degrees  of  comparison ;  its  intricate 
combination  with  the  verb  stood  in  the  way  of  such  for- 
mations. There  was  an  extraordinary  absence  of  struc- 
tural anomalies.  There  was  an  affluence  of  words  indica- 
tive of  distinctions  between  persons  in  the  same  relations 
of  consanguinity ;  as  between  elder  and  younger  brother, 
paternal  and  maternal  uncle.  And,  what  was  more  singu- 
lar, each  sex  had  a  separate  vocabulary  for  its  own  use 
in  speaking  of  such  relations.  There  was  a  diminutive 
form  of  nouns. 

But,  while  the  grammatical  structure  of  languages  ad- 

1  Tliat  oarcfiil  sdiolar,  tlie  lato  IVIr.     vortontly  rotifniinded  the  iuterrogative 
tTolin  I'iik('riii!;r.  says  otliiTwiso.   (]\Iass.     pronoun  with  the  relative. 
Ilist.  Coll.,  XX.  108.)      But  ho  inad- 


Cn.vp.  I.]  ABORIGINAL   INHABITANTS.  43 

mits  of  an  essentially  uniform  analysis,  and  the  system 
of  declension,  conjugation,  and  syntax  presents  Their vocab- 
curious  general  analogies,  as  developed  in  dia-  "'"^'• 
lects  the  most  remote  in  time  and  place  from  each  other, 
the  character  of  their  vocabularies  will  vary  indefinitely, 
presenting  in  every  case  a  faithful  reflection  of  the  com- 
plexion and  extent  of  the  people's  thought.  A  nation, 
has  no  names  for  ideas  which  it  has  not  entertained ;  even 
Greeks  and  Romans,  the  sage  nations  of  antiquity,  had 
no  equivalent  for  the  word  virtue,  the  most  important  in 
our  dictionary.  The  puerile  immaturity  of  the  Indian's 
mind  betrayed  itself  by  the  poverty  of  his  language  in  the 
class  of  words  which  are  the  index,  the  result,  and  the 
instrument  of  mental  generalizations.  As  he  had  not 
the  cultivated  reason  which  classifies,  he  had  few  or  no 
names  of  genera,  while  he  multiplied  the  names  of  species 
without  regard  to  resemblances  which  to  us  seem  essential 
and  obvious.  He  attached  to  different  kinds  of  oak  de- 
nominations as  different  as  those  he  gave  to  oaks  and  wil- 
lows. The  exigencies  of  discourse  lead  to  the  attempt  to 
supply  by  metaphors  the  want  of  abstract  terms ;  but  met- 
aphorical language  can  never  be  that  of  discussion  and 
study.  The  Indian  w^as  no  philosopher,  and  his  dialects 
were  miserably  barren  of  abstract  terms  of  every  sort.^ 
He  had  not  so  much  as  named  time,  space,  or  substance. 

The  subject  of  their  langunge  is  not  without  a  bearing 
upon  the  credit  of  the  transmitted  accounts  of  The 
what  has  been  favorably  styled  the  religion  of 
the  New-England  Indians.  The  considerate  inquirer  will 
remark  by  what  means  the  information  was  collected,  so 
largely  bequeathed  to  us  by  contemporary  writers.  All 
representations  of  the  opinions  of  barbarous  nations  ought 
to  be  received  with  extreme  caution ;  and,  in  the  compass 

1  I  have  not  overlooked  what  is  sakl  loose  expression  of  an  enthusiast  for  his 

by  Edwards    on   this    matter    (Mass,  departmentof  study,  he  will  bo  satisfied 

Hist.  Coll.,  XX.  96,  118).     But  if  any  by  a  little  inspection  of  the   vocabu- 

one  has  a  doubt  whether  this  was  the  laries. 


tieir  re- 
liiiion. 


44  HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

of  liuman  thought,  there  are  no  ideas  more  abstract  than 
those  of  religion.  "Whatever  information  the  European 
settlers  obtained  concerning  the  theories  of  the  natives  on 
this  subject,  reached  them  through  the  treacherous  in- 
strumentality of  a  language,  not  only,  at  best,  imperfectly 
understood  by  the  hearer,'  but  essentially  unsuitable  for 
explanations  on  such  a  subject,  and,  what  was  worse  yet, 
unsuitable  for  conducting  the  speculations  by  means  of 
which  theories  are  framed.  By  and  by,  settler  and  native 
came  to  understand  better  each  other's  speech.  But  step 
by  step,  meanwhile,  the  original  ideas  of  the  natives  had 
been  modified  by  this  intercourse ;  and,  in  proportion  as 
they  were  more  capable  of  explaining  their  meaning,  their 
meaning  itself,  the  subject  of  their  explanation,  had  been 
adulterated  and  confused ;  while,  from  first  to  last,  the 
observers  and  writers,  themselves  men  of  religious  theo- 
ries, whether  Romanist  or  Puritan,  would  insensibly  be 
guided  by  their  respective  predilections  in  their  expo- 
sitions of  what  the  Indians  told,  and  would  compose  a 
sense  of  their  own  out  of  the  unmeaning  or  enigmatical 
communications  which  they  received.^ 

The  very  first  process  of  such  an  interpretation  is  illu- 
sory. The  civilized  man,  having  constructed  or  received 
some  scheme  of  physics,  metaphysics,  or  theology,  imag- 
ines that  every  human  mind  must  have  some  conceptions 
corresponding  with  it ;  and,  when  encountered  by  strange 


^  "  As  for  the  lanauajro,  it  is  ACiy  countries,"  &c.      (Gcncrall  Ilistorie  of 

copious,  large,  and  (liHicult.    As  yet  we  Virginia,  &c.,  214,  edit.  1626.)     Else- 

cannot   attain   to   any   great    measure  where   he   forgets  this  becoming  cau- 

thercof."    (Winslow,  Good  Newes,  &c.,  tion.     "  Some report  that  the 

CO.)  This  was  written  when  AVinslow  people  are  so  brute,  they  have  no  re- 
had  been  in  coninuinication  with  the  ligion  ;  wherein  surely  they  are  de- 
Indians  two  years  and  a  half.  ccived ;  for  my  part,  I  never  heard  of 

2  Smith,  who  overlo<jked  few  things  anv  nation  in  the  world  which  had  not 

that  canu!  in  his   way,    saw    this,    and  a  religion."     (Ibid.,   240.)      Such  was 

rcjKirted  his  ob.servations   witli   projicr  the  .«ort  of  prepossession  with  which  the 

allowance :    "  As  I  gathered  from  their  strangers  addressed  themselves  to  the 

niggardly   relations    in   a  broken   Ian-  interjiretation  of  what  they  heard  and 

guage,  during  the  time  I  ranged  those  saw. 


Chap.  I.]  ABORIGINAL  INHABITANTS.  45 

forms  of  thought,  he  proceeds  to  dispose  of  them  by  expla- 
nations founded  on  that  unsafe  liypothesis.  If  the  Indian 
AYord  Manitou  appeared  to  denote  something  above  or 
beside  the  common  aspects  and  agencies  of  nature,  it 
might  be  natural,  but  it  would  be  rash  and  misleading, 
to  confound  its  import  with  the  Christian,  Mohammedan, 
Jewish,  Egyptian,  or  Greek  conception  of  Deitij,  or  with 
any  compound  of  a  selection  from  some  or  all  of  those 
ideas.  In  preaching  to  the  Indians,  Cotton  of  Plymouth 
was  obliged  to  use  the  word  God  for  the  Supreme  Beings 
for  want  of  any  equivalent  sign  in  the  language  of  his 
hearers,^  and  Eliot  in  his  translation  of  the  Bible  was 
driven  to  a  similar  expedient."  It  is  on  altogether  too 
slender  a  basis  of  ascertained  facts,  that  literature,  alike 
of  prose  and  of  poetry,  has  built  up  a  theology  for 

"  the  poor  Indian,  whose  untutored  mind 
Sees  God  in  clouds  and  hears  him  in  the  wind." 

Such  an  Indian  is  mainly  an  imagination  of  European 
sentimentalists ;  in  the  current  conception  of  him,  he  is 
as  fabulous  as  the  griffin  or  the  centaur.^ 

1  Specimens  of  his  sermons  are  in  ject  among  a  few  authorities  is,  that  the 
the  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  XXII.  249.  Indians  believed,  —  1.  that  there  are  a 

2  Eliot,  however,  sometimes  adopts  good  and  evil  spirit  (a  god  and  a  devil)  ; 
the  word  il/«n (Vow,  especially  in  combina-  2.  that  they  or  some  of  them  would  live 
tion  with  Jehovah.  —  "In  the  prayers  a  happy  Ufe  after  death;  and  3.  that 
and  sermons  made  by  the  Indians  in  the  place  of  that  existence  would  be  at 
their  own  language,  they  were  taught  the  southwest.  It  is  obvious  how  ready 
to  use  the  word  Jehovah,  or  the  English  the  inquirers  were,  as  to  the  first  two 
words  God  or  Lord.  Roger  Williams  points,  to  put  their  own  construction  on 
uses  the  Indian  word  Manitou,  by  which  what  was  said,  or  what  was  not  said,  by 
word  they  seemed  rather  to  have  ex-  the  other  party,  and  how  easy  it  was  for 
pressed  their  admiration  at  anything  them  to  exalt  a  eulogium  of  that  south- 
which  excelled,  whether  animate  or  in-  west  country, from  which  corn  and  beans 
animate."  (Hutchinson,  I.  421.)  "It  had  come,  into  a  description  of  an 
is  probable  the  Indians  run  over  a  extra-mundane  paradise.  (See  above, 
number  of  names  to  impose  upon  Mr.  p.  27,  note  2.)  Kautontowit  and  ^Iiit- 
Mayhew,  or  to  get  rid  of  his  importu-  cheshesunnctool,  Keitan  and  Ilobbo- 
nity,  and  that,  from  this  authority  only,  mok,  Tantum  and  S(piantum,  —  these 
other  writera  have  mentioned  a  plural-  are  pairs  of  names  transmitted  to  us  as 
ity  of  gods."     (Ibid.,  422.)  designations  of  the  good  and  evil  spir- 

3  The  sum  of  the  statements  in  which  it  respectively.  The  last  two  appear 
there  is  a  sort  of  agreement  on  this  sub-  oftenest.     But  so  great  is  the  uncer' 


46 


HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 


[Book  I. 


Several  of  the  early  French  explorers  of  North  America 
declared  that  tribes  visited  by  them  were  absolutely  with- 
out a  notion  of  religion.^  There  is  not  wanting  testimony 
of  the  same  kind  in  relation  to  the  New-England  tribes.^ 
The  correct  perception  of  some  facts  obvious  to  the  senses 
was,  at  all  events,  not  endangered  by  that  inadequacy  of 
oral  communication  which  renders  suspicious  so  much  of 
the  testimony  on  this  subject ;  and  it  is  quite  certain  that 
the  savages  of  New  England  had  no  temples,  no  pub- 
lic ritual,  nothing  which  can  be  called  social  worship,  no 
order  of  priests.  In  short,  of  the  machinery  of  religion 
they  were  destitute.  And  this  fact  is  a  pregnant  one. 
Where  there  has  been  preparation  of  the  understanding 
and  affections,  the  religious  sentiment,  however  subject  to 
be  quickened  by  forms  and  by  sympathy,  can  unaided  by 


tainty  of  these  representations,  that  one 
■writer  of  almost  the  earhest  English  age 
(Levett,  in  IL'st.  Coll.,  XXVIII.  177) 
reverses  their  positions,  and  assigns  to 
Tanto  the  role  of  Satan  and  the  dwelling 
at  the  west.  And  yet  elsewhere  (Ibid., 
1 75)  he  makes  Tanto  only  the  messen- 
ger of  death. 

1  Such  was  the  conclusion  of  La 
Salle's  company,  who  had  rare  opportu- 
nities for  observation :  "  On  pent  dire 
de  tous  qu'ils  n'ont  aucune  religion ; 
du  moins  de  tous  ceux  que  nous  avons 
vH."  (Joutel,  Journal  Ilistorique,  225.) 
"  Quant  h  nos  Souriquois,  et  autres  leurs 
voisins,  je  ne  puis  dire  sinon  qu'ils  sont 
destitues  de  toute  connaissance  deDieu." 
(L'pjscarbot,  Ilistoire  de  la  Nouvelle 
France,  II.  6G4.  Comp.  Ibid.,  662. 
Champlain,  Voyages  de  la  Nouvelle 
France,  4.) 

2  "  They  are  a  people  without  any 
religion,  or  knowledge  of  any  God." 
(Winslow  in  ^lourt's  Relation,  61.) 
Later,  Winslow  retracted  this  state- 
ment :    "  Whereas   myself  and   others 

wrote  that  the  Indians  about 

us  are  a  people  without  any  religion, 
or  knowledge  of  any  God,   therein  I 


erred,  though  we  could  then  gather  no 
better."  (Good  Newes  from  New  Eng- 
land, 52.)  But  his  later  judgment  is 
subject  to  uncertainty  from  the  causes 
explained  above.  The  "better"  that 
he  was  able  to  "  gather,"  after  two 
or  three  years  of  communication,  was 
not  the  more  authentic.  He  says  also : 
"  Many  sacrifices  the  Indians  use,  and 
in  some  cases  kill  children."  (Ibid.,  55.) 
But  this  statement  is  likewise  too  vague 
to  inspire  confidence.  W  hat  he  took  for 
sacrifices,  and  especially  human  sacri- 
fices, are  quite  as  likely  to  have  been  acts 
of  anentirely  diiferent  import;  and  when 
he  comes  to  specifications,  he  lays  the 
scene  among  the  Narragansetts,  of  whom 
personally  he  knew  nothing.  —  Morton 
says :  "  ]\Iethinks  it  is  absurd  to  say  they 
have  a  kind  of  worship,  and  not  able  to 
demonstrate  whom  or  what  it  is  they  are 
accustomed  to  worship.  For  my  part,  I 
am  more  willing  to  believe  that  the  ele- 
phants, which  are  reported  to  be  the 
most  intelligible  of  all  beasts,  do  wor- 
ship the  moon The  natives  of 

New  England  have  no  worship  or  re- 
ligion at  all."  (New  English  Canaan, 
Book  L  Chap.  V.) 


Chap.  I.]  ABORIGINAL  INHABITANTS.  47 

them  sustain  its  life  in  the  solitary  breast.  But  that 
among  a  people  in  a  low  state  of  culture  anything  en- 
titled to  the  name  can  exist  without  some  provision  for 
its  public  inculcation  and  expression,  is  a  fact  requiring 
to  be  established,  before  the  existence  of  a  religion  among 
them  can  be  made  credible. 

The  early  observers  fell  into  the  error  of  regarding  the 
sorceries  used  among  the  natives  as  religious  practices.  In 
this  there  was  a  mere  confusion  of  ideas.  The  medicine- 
man,  or  poicow,  was  not  a  priest,  but  a  reputed  conjurer.' 
The  causes  of  disease  are  mysterious.  Its  cure  is  effect- 
ed by  agents  seemingly  inadequate.  Agitations  of  the 
mind  often  expel  or  relieve  it.  He  who  conquers  it  by 
his  nostrums  or  his  spells  may  plausibly  lay  claim  to  a 
control  over  the  powers  of  nature.  To  the  ignorant,  the 
man  who  can  cool  a  fever  seems  likely  to  be  the  man  that 
can  still  a  storm.  The  temptation  to  such  a  practitioner 
to  make  the  most  of  his  power  of  imposture  is  great. 
He  may  challenge  reverence  and  tribute  for  himself  as  a 
ruler  of  the  elements,  and  excite  a  sort  of  superstition  to 
acknowledge  his  claim.  We  may  frame  a  definition  of 
religion  such  as  to  include  fancies  and  practices  like  these. 
But  the  definition  would  be  arbitrary,  and  the  use  unprof- 
itable and  inconvenient.  So  the  murdering  by  the  In- 
dians of  their  captives  has  been  interpreted  as  a  religious 
sacrifice.  But  to  slay  enemies  and  to  offer  worship  are 
not  intrinsically  the  same  act ;  there  must  be  something 
to  bridge  the  chasm  that  parts  them,  before  the  mind  can 
recognize  a  relation  between  the  two." 

1  Wood,  New  England's  Prospect,  America,  Book  IV.  §  7)  was  laboring 
Part  II.  Chap.  XII.  —  Morton,  New  painfully  all  the  way  throujih  this  part 
English  Canaan,  Book  I.  Chap.  IX.  of  his  task.     He  began  with  a  theory, 

2  I  have  been  brought  to  the  conclu-  and  the  materials  for  sustaining  it  failed, 
sions  which  I  present  by  a  careful  read-  He  has  been  much  followed  by  later 
ing  of  the  original  authorities.  They  writers.  Williams  (History  of  Ver- 
systematized  too  freely  what  they  heard  mont,  Chap.  VII.,  THI.)  has  but 
and  saw,  and  some  of  their  successors  abridged  him,  constantly  copying  even 
have  been  yet  more  adventurous.      It  his  language. 

is  evident  that  Kobertson   (History  of 


48  HISTORY   OF   NEW   ENGLAND.  (Book  I. 

So,  between  the  idea  of  mere  revival  after  death  and  the 
idea  of  immortality,  the  difference  is  no  less  than  infinite ; 
yet  nothing  is  more  common  than  to  deal  with  them  as 
if  they  were  equivalent.  The  practice  of  burying  with 
a  man  his  arms  and  apparel  was  not  an  unnatural  ex- 
pression of  the  thought  that  his  course  "was  finished,  and 
that  the  separation  from  him  was  complete.  It  seemed  fit 
that  along  with  his  breathless  body  the  other  familiar 
appendages  of  his  life  —  his  weapons,  his  ornaments,  his 
utensils,  his  clothes,  the  mat  which  had  been  his  couch  — 
should  be  put  out  of  the  way  and  out  of  sight.  "We  may- 
further  ascribe  something  of  sentiment  to  the  proceeding, 
as,  if  we  leave  the  marriage  ring  on  the  cold  finger,  it  is  not 
because  we  expect  it  will  ever  again  be  worn,  but  because 
of  an  aimless  reluctance  to  break  so  dear  an  association. 
If,  especially  in  the  particular  of  the  deposit  of  provisions 
in  graves,  the  custom  imports  an  intention  to  furnish  the 
departed  with  supplies  for  the  wants  of  another  life,  still 
it  neither  appears  that  the  practice  was  uniform,  nor  that, 
when  observed,  it  was  indicative  of  anything  beyond  the 
indulgence  of  a  fond  hope  or  imagination.  The  natural 
difficulty  of  subsiding  into  the  conviction  that  acts  and 
experiences  long  blended  with  our  own  are  at  an  end, 
easily  slides  into  a  dreamy  thought,  poorly  entitled  to  the 
rank  of  a  tenet  of  religion,  that  the  vanished  existence 
is  not  extinct.^      But  as  to  any  belief  in  an  interminable 

1  "  One  day  we  asked  a  mandarin,  a  Journey  through  the  Chinese  Empire, 

friend  of  ours  who  had  just  ofTcred  a  II.  213.)      A  learned  friend,  who  late- 

6unij)tuous  repast  at  the  tomb  of  a  de-  ly  made  extensive  examinations  in  the 

ceased  colh-ajfue,  whether  in  his  opinion  larjie  Indian  ljurying-])iaee  at  Nantasket, 

the  dead  stood  in  need  of  food.     '  How  informs  me  that  he  did  not  find  remains 

could  you  possibly  suppose  I  had  such  of  arms  in  any  grave.  In  some  there  was 

an  ideaV  he  replied,  with  the  utmost  with  the  skeleton  a  single  utensil,  as  a 

astonishment;  'we  intend  to  do  honor  stone  pestle.  Many  contained  a  quantity 

to  the  memory   of  our   relations   and  of  fragments  of  pottery, but  in  no  instance 

friends,  to  show  that  they  still  live  in  did  a  careful  excavation  discover  a  whole 

our  remembrance,  and  that  we  like  to  vessel  of  any  sort,  nor  did  it  seem  possi- 

serve  them  as  if  they  were  yet  with  us.  ble  that  any  one  should  have  been  entire 

Who  could  bo  absurd  enougli  to  believe  when  deposited  in  the  gnnuid.      What 

that  the  dead  need  to  eat?'"     (Hue,  use  could  it  have  been  imagined  that  the 


Chap.  L]  ABORIGINAL   INHABITANTS.  49 

existence  or  in  a  universal  retribution  on  the  other  side 
of  the  grave,  the  authorities,  partial  as  at  best  they  must 
be  considered,  are  profoundly  silent.  The  New-England 
savage  was  not  the  person  to  have  discovered  what  the 
vast  reach  of  thought  of  Plato  and  Cicero  could  not  attain. 

With  the  Indian,  the  social  attraction  was  feeble.  At 
the  fishing  season,  he  would  meet  his  fellows  of  the  same 
tribe  by  the  shores  of  ponds  and  at  the  falls  of  rivers,  and 
enjoy  the  most  that  he  knew  of  companionship  and  fes- 
tivity. But  much  of  his  life  was  passed  in  the  seclusion 
of  his  wigwam  and  the  solitude  of  the  chase.  The  habit 
of  loneliness  and  of  self-protection  made  him  in-  Their  stoi- 
dependent  and  proud.  His  pride  created  an  apti-  "^"'^ 
tude  for  the  virtue  w^hich  constituted  his  point  of  honor, 
and  which  he  cultivated  with  assiduous  attention.  This 
was  fortitude  under  suffering.  In  war,  craft  rather  than 
valor  stood  high  in  his  esteem.  Stealth  and  swiftness  com- 
posed his  strategy.  He  showed  no  daring  and  no  constancy 
in  the  field ;  but  it  Avas  great  glory  to  him  to  bear  the  most 
horrible  tortures  without  complaint  or  a  sign  of  anguish. 

His  brave  endurance,  however  studied  and  scenic,  or  in 
whatever  degree  the  symptom  of  a  ruder  nervous  organi- 
zation, presented  the  bright  side  of  his  character.^     He 

revivified  dead  could  have  for  broken  ^  De  !Maistre  (Soire'es  do  Saint  Pc- 
dishes?  Not  only  bas  the  imagination  tersbourg,  I.  77),  after  quoting  Robert- 
been  at  work  in  this  matter,  but  at  son's  admission,  which  Robertson  often 
work  on  materials  partly  of  its  own  forgot,  that  it  is  necessary  to  distrust 
creation.  "  The  finciful  historians  have  the  representations  of  all  ecclesiastics 
said  much  respecting  the  savage's  hope  respecting  the  red  men,  as  being  gener- 
of  felicity  in  fine  fields  beyond  the  gates  ally  too  favorable,  proceeds :  "  C'est  un 
of  death,  where  he  should  meet  his  an-  enfant  difforme,  robuste,  et  feroce,  en 
cestors,  and  be  happy  in  a  state  of  im-  qui  la  flamme  de  I'intelligence  ne  jette 

mortality But  from  any  conver-  plus  qu'une  Incur  pale  et  intermittente. 

sations  had  with  the  Indians  here,  or  Une  main  redoutable  appesantie  sur  ces 
from  anything  which  can  be  gathered  races  devouees  efface  en  elles  les  deux 
from  those  who  have  been  most  with  characteres  distinctifs  de  notre  gran- 
them.  there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  deur,  la  prevoyance  et  la  perfectibilite. 
the  Northern  savages  ever  had  ideas  of  Le  sauvage  coupe  Tarbrc  pour  cueillir 
that  nature."  (Sullivan,  History  of  le  fruit,  il  detellc  le  bcruf  quo  les  mis- 
Maine,  105  )  sionaires  vlcnneut  de  lui  confier,  et  lo 

VOL.   I.  5 


50  HISTORY   OF  XEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

was  without  tenderness,  and  very  few  instances  are  re- 
corded of  his  appearing  capable  of  gratitude.  Cunning 
and  falsehood,  the  vice§  of  the  undiscij)lined,  the  weap- 
ons of  the  imbecile,  were  eminently  his.  Ilis  word  was 
no  security.  He  could  play  the  spy  with  a  perfect  self- 
possession  ;  and  a  treaty  could  not  bind  him,  w^hen  he  sup- 
posed it  might  be  broken  without  danger.  Exceptions 
Their  infe-  arc  to  bc  allow^cd  for  in  every  portraiture  of  a 
fi.^dviiLa-^  class  of  men.  Everywhere  and  in  all  times  there 
'■""•  are  happy  natures  that  rise  above  the  moral  stand- 

ard of  their  place.  But  it  remains  true  of  the  normal 
representative  of  this  peculiar  race,  that  his  temper  w-as 
sullen,  jealous,  passionate,  intensely  vindictive,  and  fero- 
ciously cruel.  Good  faith  and  good  offices  can  never 
be  w'holly  unavailing  ;  but,  if  it  W'as  possible  that  the 
red  men  of  New  England  should  ever  have  become  other 
than  bad  neighbors,  certain  it  is  that  all  their  history 
shows  them  to  have  been  a  race  singularly  unsusceptible 
of  the  influences  of  a  humane  civilization. 


fait  cuire  avoc  le  hois  de  la  cliarrue.  vipon  the  face  of  the  earth.     Perhaps 

Depuis  plus  de  trois  siecles  il  nous  con-  the  Indians    about   the   Massachusetts 

temple  sans  avoir  rien  voulu  recevoir  Bay  -were  some  of  the  lowest  among  the 

de  nous,  excepte  la  poudre  pour  tuer  American    nations."     (Hutchinson,    I. 

ses  semblables,  et  I'eau-de-vie  pour  se  414.)     If,  on  the  one  hand,  we  are  re- 

tuer  lui-meme.     Encore  n'a-t-il  jamais  mote  from  the  passions  of  that  day,  on 

imagine  de  fabriquer  ces  choses ;  il  s'en  the  other  hand  we  are  remote  from  its 

repose  sur  notre  avarice."     And  more  knowledge,      Hutchinson's   portrait  of 

follows,  of  still  greater  strength.    If  this  the  natives  is  certainly  dark.     His  in- 

is  not,  as  it  certainly  is  not,  the  Ian-  valuable  materials  for  the  formation  of 

guagc  of  a  calm  ])liiIosophy,  it  is  that  a  judgment  are  in  great  part  lost.    The 

of  a  writer  of  vast  study  and  reflection,  resentments  which  might  have  biassed 

"  They  that  speak  most  favorably  give  it  could  hardly  have  been  transmitted 

but  an  indifferent  idea  of  the  qualities  to  his  time.    Callcnder  (R.  I.  Hist.  Coll., 

of  their  minds.      Mr.   Wilson   speaks  IV.  140)  quotes  a  manuscript  of  Roger 

of  them  but  with  compassion,   as  the  Williams,  to  show  that  Williams  thought 

most  sordid  and  contemptible  part  of  more  unfavorably  of  the  natives  as  he 

the  human  species.     IMr.  Hooker  says  knew  them  better.     (Couip.  Mass.  Hist, 

they  are  the  veriest  ruins  of  mankind  Coll.,  XXIX.  21)9,  XXX.  27.) 


CHAPTER  II. 

For  an  unknown  length  of  time  the  country  and  peo- 
ple that  have  been  described  had  been  hidden  behind  the 
ocean  from  the  knowledge  of  civilized  man.  It  is  doubt- 
ful whether  they  were  ever  seen  by  European  eyes  till 
nearly  five  years  had  passed  after  Columbus  1493. 
found  his  way  to  the  West  India  Islands.  But  *^""  ^^' 
the  existence  in  the  North  of  Europe  of  a  traditional 
account  of  visits  to  the  northeasterly  parts  of  North 
America  by  Scandinavian  voyagers,  in  the  eleventh  cen- 
tury and  in  the  three  centuries  next  following,  has  long 
been  known  to  geographers ;  ^  and  original  documents 
relating  to  this  interesting  problem  have  recently  been 
placed  in  the  possession  of  the  reading  world. 

It   is   no   wise  unlikely    that   eight    or  nine   hundred 
years   ago    the    Norwegian    navigators    extended  Alleged 
their  voyages  as  far  as  the  American  continent.  Northmen^ 
Possessing   the  best  nautical  skill  of  their  age,  ^o  America. 

^  "  La  merite,"  says  Humboldt  (Exa-  ta,"  and  uses  the  words  quoted  by  Hum- 
men  Critique,  H.  1 20),  "  d'avoir  reconnu  boldt ;  but  he  explains  himself  as  having 
la  premiere  decouverte  de  I'Amerique  in  view  the  fisherman's  adventures  re- 
continentale  par  les  Normands,  apjmr-  ported  by  Antonio  Zeno  in  the  fifteenth 
tient  indubitablement  au  geographe  Or-  century.  (See  below,  p.  60.) — Belknap 
telius,  qui  annon^a  cette  opinion  des  I'an-  (American  lilography,  I.  52)  credited 
nee  1570";  and  then  he  quotes  words  his  information  of  the  discovery  by  the 
of  Ortehus  which,  however,  are  not  Northmen  to  Pontoppidan  (History  of 
found  in  the  edition  either  of  15  75  or  Norway),  Crantz  (History  of  Green- 
of  1584.  Indeed,  it  is  clear  from  his  Ian-  land),  and  John  Reinhold  Forster  (His- 
guage  (Theatrum  Orbis  Terrarum,  edit,  tory  of  the  Voyages  and  Discoveries 
1584,  p.  5)  that  as  late  as  the  latter  date  made  in  the  Noi-th),  all  writers  of  the 
he  had  heard  nothing  of  an  ante-Colum-  last  century.  —  ]\Ialte-Brun  (Precis  de 
bian  discovery.  In  the  edition  of  1592  la  Ge'ographie,  I.  395)  referred  to  the 
(p.  6)  he  refers  to  reports  of  such  a  spurious  chapters  (see  below,  p.  52, 
discovery  as  "  qusedam  hand  vulgo  no-  note)  in  the  Ileimskrinfrja. 


52  HISTORY   OF   NEW   ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

they  put  to  sea  in  substantial  ships,  having  decks  and  well- 
contrived  rigging.  Iceland  they  had  undoubtedly  reached 
and  colonized  ;  and  from  Iceland,  Greenland.  From  Cape 
Farewell,  the  southern  extremity  of  Greenland,  to  the 
nearest  point  on  the  American  continent  in  Labrador,  the 
distance  is  no  greater  than  the  distance  to  Iceland  from 
the  point  of  departure  in  Norway.  It  is  altogether  credi- 
ble, that  the  rovers  who  explored  every  sea  from  the  Baltic 
to  the  ^gean  should,  by  stress  of  bad  weather  or  by  favor 
of  good,  have  been  conveyed  a  distance  of  only  three  or 
four  days'  sail  from  land  to  land.  When  they  had  often 
prosperously  made  the  passage  from  their  homes  to  Ice- 
land, they  might  well  have  had  confidence  for  another 
like  adventure,  which  would  have  brought  them  from 
Greenland  to  Labrador.  And  from  Labrador,  the  explora- 
tion of  as  much  more  of  the  coast  of  North  America  as 
they  might  be  disposed  to  visit  would  require  only  a 
coasting  voyage. 

The  historical  evidence  upon  this  subject,  which  has 
been  published  from  the  manuscripts  by  the  Royal  So- 
ciety of  Northern  Antiquaries  at  Copenhagen,'  is  found 

1  Antiquitates  Americana?,  sive  Scrip-  chapters  appear  In  full  in  a  manuscript 

tores     Septentrionales     Rcrum     Ante-  called,  from  the  place  of  its  preservation, 

Columblanarum  in  America.  —  Samling  the  Codex  Flateyensis,  and  have  been 

af  de  i  Nordens  Oldskrifter  indeholdte  ascertained  on  good  evidence  to  be  a 

Efterretninger  om  de  gamle  Nordboers  work  composed  within  the  last  fifteen 

Opdagelsesreiser   til  America,  fra   det  years   of  the  fourteenth   century.      A 

lOde  til  det  14de  Aarhundrede.  —  Edi-  translation    of  them   is   published    by 

dit  Societas  Regia  Antiquariorum  Sep-  Laing  in  the  Appendix  to  his  version  of 

tentrionalium.     IIafnia9.     1837.    4to.  the  lieimskringla.     Of  the  discovery  of 

In  1007,  Peringskiold  published  the  America,  Sturleson  had  himself  said  no 

"  lieimskringla,    or    Chronicle   of   the  more  than  that  "  he  [Leif]  also  found 

Kings  of  Norway,"  in  the  original  Ice-  Vinland  the  good."      (Laing's  Ileims- 

landic  of   Snorro  Sturleson,   who  was  kringla,  I.  465.) 

born  in   1178  and   died  in   1241.     In  The  Codex  Flateyensis  furnishes  the 

1 705,     Torfaius     (Historia    Vinlandite  first  of  the  narratives  lately  published 

Antiquas,  Praef)  pointed  out  that  Pe-  by  the   Danish   antiquaries,    the   same 

ringskiold    from    some   foreign    source  which  was  Interpolated  Into  Sturleson's 

had  interpolated   eight  chapters  which  text  by  Peringskiold,  and  from  which 

were  not  to  be  found  in  any  genuine  the  sketch  in  the  text  is  abridged.     The 

manuscript  of  Snorro's  work.      These  second  narrative  in  the  Danish  collec- 


Chap.  II.]  EARLY   VOYAGES   AND   EXPLORATIONS.  53 

in  extracts  from  compositions  of  some  eighteen  writers, 
most  of  them  Icelandic.  Their  antiquity  and  genuine- 
ness appear  to  he  well  estahlished,  nor  is  there  anything 
to  bring  their  credibility  into  question,  beyond  the  gen- 
eral doubt  which  always  attaches  to  the  relation  of  what 
is  new  and  strange.  If  they  are  trustworthy,  the  follow- 
ing facts  are  to  be  adopted  into  history. 

About  a  hundred  years  before  the  Norman  conquest  of 
Enc'land,  one  Biorne,  or  Biarne,  sailed  from  Ice- 

*-'  Voy.ige  of 

land  for  Greenland,  in  search  of  his  father,  who  siome. 
had  gone  thither.  Overtaken  by  fogs,  he  lost  his 
reckoning.  AVhen  the  Aveather  became  clear,  he  found 
himself  sailing  in  a  northeasterly  direction,  with  low  and 
wooded  land  on  the  larboard  side.  He  kept  on  the  same 
course  nine  days,  and  at  the  end  of  them  arrived  in  Green- 
land, reaching  it  in  a  direction  opposite  to  that  with 
which  the  voyage  had  been  begun. 

The  subject  had  been   pondered    several   years,  when 
Lcif,  with  a  sin^^le  vessel  and  a  crew  of  thirty- 

o  •'  Voyage 

five  men,  sailed  from  Greenland  in  quest  of  the  ofi>p'f- 
land  reported  to  have  been  seen  by  Biorne.  He 
found  it,  went  on  shore,  and  gave  it  the  name  of  Ilellu- 
land,  from  a  word  signifying  slate  in  the  Icelandic  tongue. 
Embarking  again,  and  proceeding  southwardly  along  the 
coast,  he  came  to  a  country  well  wooded  and  level,  except 
as  it  was  broken  along  the  sea  by  a  succession  of  bluifs 
of  white  sand.  This  he  called  Markland,  in  allusion  to 
its  ivood.  Sailing  two  days  more  with  a  northeasterly 
wind,  out  of  sight  of  land,  he  reached  an  island,  and 
passed  westward  along  its  northern  side.  He  disem- 
barked, built  huts,  and  wintered  on  the  mainland,  which 
he  named  Vinland,  or  Wineland,  in  consequence  of  a  re- 

tion,  the  History  of  ThorfinnKarlsefiio,  extracts  from  different  -writers  of  the 

goes  over  much  of  the  same  ground,  but  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries,  of  more 

with  some  differences  of  detail.     These  or   less   interest    as    corroborating    the 

two  principal   pieces   are  followed   by  main  story, 

5* 


5-1  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

port  from  one  of  his  men,  a  German,  that,  wandering  in 
the  woods,  he  had  seen  abundance  of  grapes  such  as  wine 
was  made  from  in  his  native  country. 

On  his  return   to  Greenland,  Leif  gave   over  his   ves- 
sel to  his  brother  Thorwald,  who  set  sail  on  an 

Toyajre  of 

Tiioruaid.     cxpcditiou   to  explore  the  new   country  further 

1003.  ^  .  . 

towards  the  south.      He  passed  a  wniter  in  Vm- 
land,  and  in  the  following  summer  found  several  uninhab- 
ited islands.     After  another  winter,  he  sailed  to 

1005. 

the  eastward  and  then  to  the  north.  Doubling 
a  cape,  which  he  called  Kialarnes  (keel-cape),  and  coasting 
along  the  shore  of  the  bay  within,  he  received  a  mortal 
wound  from  some  natives  by  a  woody  promontory,  which 
he  called  Krossanes,  from  the  cross  which  he  ordered  to  be 
set  up  at  the  head  of  his  grave.  His  companions  passed  a 
third  winter  in  Yinland,  and  then  returned  to  Greenland. 
The  next  expedition   was   planned  on  a  larger  scale. 

Thorfinn,  surnamed  the  Hopeful,  a  person  of  rank 

Voyage  of  j    »/        '         i 

Thorfinn.      aud  wcaltli,  with  a  hundred  and  sixty  men  in 

1007.  .  ■' 

three  vessels,  sailed  from  Greenland  for  Vinland 
for  the  purpose  of  establishing  a  colony.  They  touched 
at  Helluland  and  Markland,  saw  Cape  Kialarnes  as  they 
steered  south,  and,  passing  by  a  long  beach  of  sand,  came 
to  a  bay  extending  up  into  the  country,  with  an  island  at 
its  entrance.  To  the  island,  which  was  covered  with  the 
eggs  of  eider-ducks,  they  gave  the  name  of  Straiimoei/ 
(stream-island),  and  to  the  bay,  the  name  of  Straumfidrdr 
(stream-firth).  Soutlnvesterly  from  this  island,  they  en- 
tered the  mouth  of  a  river,  and  passed  up  into  a  lake,  upon 
whose  banks  Mheat  and  vines  grew  wild.  The  natives,  who 
came  about  tluun  in  canoes,  were  of  a  sallow  complexion, 
with  large,  ill-formed  faces  and  shaggy  hair.  There  was  no 
snow,  and  the  live  stock  which  had  been  landed  wintered 
in  the  fields.  After  some  conflicts  with  the  savntrcs,  Thor- 
finn  relinquished  his  project  of  coloiiizatifm,  and  returned 
with  liis  company  to  (irecnlaiid.     Accounts  of  two  more 


Chap.  II.]    EAKLY  VOYAGES  AND  EXPLORATIONS.         55 

voyages  to  Vinland  within  the  next  three  or  four  years 
make  the  last  of  these  circumstantial  narratives ;  but  the 
communication  between  the  countries  is  represented  as  hav- 
ing been  not  entirely  discontinued  before  the  middle  of  the 
fourteenth  century.  When  other  objects  were  abandoned, 
visits  may  have  continued  to  be  made  to  the  American  shore 
on  account  of  its  excellent  materials  for  ship-building. 

The  name  Hellidand  may  have  been  given  to  wliat  we 
call  Labrador,  or  to  Newfoundland  ;  Markland  may  answer 
to  Nova  Scotia;  and  it  has  been  supposed  that  Vinland 
denotes  Hhode  Island  and  the  southeastern  part  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, that  the  island  passed  by  Leif  before  reaching 
Vinland  was  Nantucket,  and  that  Kialarnes,  Krossanes, 
Straumfi'drd)',  and  Straumoey  are  respectively  Cape  Cod, 
Point  Allerton  in  Boston  harbor,  Buzzard's  Bay,  and 
Martha's  Vineyard.  But  the  materials  for  an  argument 
to  identify  these  spots  are  insufficient;  some  of  the  par- 
ticular statements  are  self-contradictory  or  inconsistent; 
and  the  descriptions  of  the  climate  and  of  the  native  in- 
habitants are  hardly  to  be  reconciled  with  what  is  now 
known  of  the  climate  and  the  aborigines  of  New  Eng- 
land.^ There  is  an  important  statement  respecting  the 
length  of  the  day  in  Vinland  at  the  winter  solstice,  which 
has  been  so  interpreted  as  to  identify  its  latitude  with  that 
of  Rhode  Island.  But  the  meaning  of  the  passage  is  very 
doubtfuh^ 

1  As  to  the  natives,  however,  It  must  then  the  sentence  imports  that  on  the 
be  owned  that  the  Esquimaux,  whom  shortest  daj'  the  sun  ^rose  in  Vinland 
the  desei-iption  sufficiently  Avell  suits,  at  that  hour,  determining  its  latitude 
may,  eight  hundred  years  ago,  have  to  be  fifty-eight  degrees  and  a  half, 
dwelt  as  far  south  as  Rhode  Island,  and  or  the  latitude,  not  of  Rhode  Island, 
have  been  driven  into  a  higher  lati-  but  of  the  part  of  Labrador  near  Hud- 
tude  by  in^ders  between  the  visit  of  son's  Strait,  a  region  to  which  the  de- 
the  Northmen  and  that  of  Verazzano.  scriptlon  of  the  climate  and  productions 

2  The  sentence  contains  two  words  of  of  Vinland  is  still  more  inapplicable, 
uncertain  meaning,  eykterstad  and  dari-  The  translation  of  Peringskiold,  an  ex- 
malastad.  If  dcujmalaslad  signifies,  as  pert  in  the  Icelandic  language,  extracts 
was  thought  by  Pontopjiidan,  the  Ice-  from  the  words  the  sense  that  the  shortest 
landic  breakfast-hour  of  nine    o'clock,  winter  day  in  Vinland  was  of  the  length 


56 


HISTORY   OF   NEW  ENGLAND. 


[Book  I. 


The  history  of  civilized   New   England   does   not  call 
for   a    determination    of  the   question  as  to  a  discovery 


of  ton  or  twelve  liours,  tlius  transporting 
that  c-ountry  to  the  tropics.  The  inter- 
pretation of  Crantz  and  of  Forster  gives 
the  sun  a  coiinse  of  eiirht  hours  above  the 
liorizon,  pointing  to  Newfoundhuul  as 
the  place  of  Vinland ;  and  Torfa^us  hes- 
itates between  this  hypothesis  and  that 
of  six  liours.  The  rendering  adopted 
by  Mr.  Rafn,  the  learned  editor  of  the 
Transactions  of  the  Copenhagen  Soci- 
ety, represents  the  sentence  as  declar- 
ing that,  at  the  Avinter  solstice  in  Yin- 
land,  the  hour  of  sunrise  is  half  past 
seven,  and  the  hour  of  sunset  half  past 
four,  corresponding  nearly  to  the  lati- 
tude of  forty-one  degrees  and  thirty 
minutes,  which  is  the  latitude  of  New- 
port. "With  an  easy  faith,  perhaps  due 
to  his  Danish  birth,  ]\Ialte-Brun  (Precis 
de  la  Geographic,  I.  394)  has  assumed 
the  correctness  of  this  last  interpreta- 
tion. It  was,  however,  also  approved 
by  our  eminent  countryman,  Mr.  AVhea- 
ton  (History  of  the  Northmen,  Chap. 
11.).  And  Baron  Alexander  von  Hum- 
boldt (Kosmos,  Band  H.  ss.  209  etseq^ 
concludes  positively  that  Leif  "came 
as  far  as  31°  30'  north  latitude,"  and 
that  Vinland  "  comprehended  the  coast 
between  Boston  and  New  York,  and 
conserjuently  included  j)arts  of  the  pres- 
ent States  of  ^Massachusetts,  Rhode  Isl- 
and, and  Connecticut."  On  the  other 
hand,  Laing  (IIeim.skringla,  I.  KJT  rt 
seq.')  has  largely  exposed  the  weak 
points  of  the  Icelandic  narrative,  though 
(Ibid.,  154)  he  sustains  the  main  fact  of 
vi.sits  of  Scandinavian  vessels  to  Amer- 
ica in  the  eleventh  century. 

Other  elements  which  have  been 
brought  into  the  discussion,  but  which 
may  ])crliap3  be  said  to  be  now  dis- 
mi.sised  from  it,  arc  the  inscription  on 
a  ro<.k  in  the  town  of  Berkeley  (oppo- 
site to  Dighton).  on  Taunton  lliver, 
and   tiie   rcjund   stone  tower  near    the 


Atlantic  Hotel  in  Newport.  The  Ber- 
keley inscription,  viewed  through  the 
spectacles  of  the  imagination,  has  been 
variously  regarded  as  composed  of  Phce- 
nician,  Scythian,  or  Roman  characters, 
mingled  with  sketches  of  men  and  ani- 
mals ;  and  some  of  the  ostensible  fac- 
similes of  it  which  have  been  made  at 
diflfcirent  times,  and  which,  to  the  num- 
ber of  nine,  are  published  by  the  Co- 
penhagen Society,  exhibit  a  very  im- 
perfect resemblance  to  one  another. 
]\Ir.  Rafn  supposes  that  he  finds  here 
a  record  in  Runic  letters  of  an  expe- 
dition of  the  Icelanders  to  the  spot. 

The  inscription,  made  upon  a  hard 
greywacke  rock,  must  no  doubt  have 
cost  some  time  and  labor;  and  the  work- 
man must  have  returned  repeatedly  to 
his  task,  as  the  tide  leaves  the  sculp- 
tured face  exposed  only  about  three 
hours  at  a  time.  But  it  has  been  tor- 
tured altogether  in  vain  for  a  confes- 
sion that  it  is  the  work  of  civilized 
men.  ]\Ir.  Schoolcraft  has  perhaps  fur- 
nished the  most  probable  clew  to  its 
origin  and  meaning.  (Ethnological  Re- 
searches, I.  112  et  seq.,  IV.  119  et  seq. 
Comp.  S.  F.  Haven,  Archaeology  of  the 
United  States,  p.  133,  in  the  Smithsoni- 
an Contributions  to  Knowledge,  YIII.) 
He  placed  two  delineations  of  it  in  the 
hands  of  an  Algon<pnn  chief,  without 
accjuainting  him  with  the  state  of  the 
(juestion.  The  chief  professed  to  un- 
derstand it,  and  exjjlained  it  as  a  rec- 
ord of  a  battle  between  two  parties  of 
Indians.  When  I  visited  the  spot  in 
the  summer  of  1857,  it  was  with  the 
intention  of  causing  an  aifthentic  rejv 
rescntation  of  the  lines  to  be  made  by 
tlie  daguerreotype  j)rocess ;  an  inten- 
tion which  I  rt'linquihhed  on  learning 
that  I  had  been  anticipated  by  Mr. 
Sc'hooleraft    (Ibid.,  IV.    120). 

Jf  the  (Irplh  ot'  the  incit^ioiis  seems  to 


Chap,  n.]         EARLY  VOYAGES  AND  EXPLORATIONS. 


57 


of  that  country  by  the  Northmen,    however   interesting 
as  a  matter   of  antiquarian  research.      If  a  colony  was 


require  the  supposition  of  iron  instru- 
ments, there  is  no  proof  of  their  having 
been  made  before  the  time  when  iron 
had  been  largely  furnished  to  the  na- 
tives by  the  English.  The  earliest 
record  of  any  notice  of  the  inscription 
is  in  1G80,  after  Philip's  war,  when  Mr. 
Danforth  had  a  drawing  made. 

The  muse  of  Longfellow  has  deter- 
mined that  the  round  tower  at  Newport 
shall  never  be  forgotten ;  else  it  would 
before  now  have  lost  the  place  in  litera- 
ture to  which  it  was  elevated  by  an- 
ti(|uarian  zeal  meeting  the  universal 
taste  for  the  marvellous.  ]\Ir.  Rafn, 
happy  to  believe  it  to  be  a  relic  of  the 
Norwegian  occupancy  of  Rhode  Island, 
has  been  at  pains,  by  engraved  delinea- 
tions, to  furnish  the  readers  of  the  Co- 
jienhagen  Transactions  with  the  means 
of  comparing  it  with  ancient  structures 
existing  in  the  North  of  Europe,  to 
the  end  of  proving  their  resemblance. 
(Transactions  of  the  Society  of  Northern 
Antiquaries  for  183 G- 3D,  p.  365.)  The 
building  is  about  twenty-three  feet  in 
diameter,  and  twenty-four  feet  and  a 
half  high,  about  half  the  height  being 
taken  up  by  eight  Roman  arches  with 
their  intervening  piers,  on  which  rests  a 
circular  wall  pierced  with  four  windows. 
Without  doubt  it  is  extraordinary  that 
no  record  exists  of  the  erection  of  so  sin- 
gular an  edifice  by  early  English  inhab- 
itants of  Rhode  Island.  But  it  would 
be  much  more  strange  that  the  first 
English  settlers  should  not  have  men- 
tioned the  fact,  if  on  their  arrival  they 
had  found  a  vestige  of  a  former  civiliza- 
tion, so  different  from  everything  else 
within  their  view. 

The  first  notice  of  it,  known  to  exist, 
is  in  the  will  of  Governor  Benedict 
Arnold,  of  Newport,  dated  December 
20th,  1G77.  He  therein  directs  his 
body  to  be  buried  at  a  certain  spot. 


"being  and  lying  in  my  land  in  or 
near  the  line  or  path  from  my  dwelling- 
house  leading  to  mtj  slone-huilt  vimlmill, 
in  the  town  of  Newport,  above  men- 
tioned." And  elsewhere  in  the  same 
instrument  that  description  is  used. 

It  is  known  that,  in  the  last  century, 
the  building  served  as  a  grist-mill,  and 
afterwards  as  a  liowder-house,  Edward 
Pelham,  husband  of  Governor  Arnold's 
granddaughter,  called  it  in  his  will, 
dated  in  1740,  "  an  old  stone  mill."  A 
tradition  in  the  Arnold  family,  vouched 
by  the  Governor's  great-grandson,  who 
died  within  the  last  ten  or  fifteen  years, 
declares  it  to  have  been  built  by  Gover- 
nor Arnold.  Peter  Easton,  an  early 
settler  at  Newport,  records  in  his  jour- 
nal, under  the  date  of  August  28,  1675, 
"  A  storm  blew  down  our  windmill."  It  is 
natural  to  suppose  that  Arnold  supplied 
its  jjlace  by.  the  stronger  edifice  Avhich, 
making  his  will  two  years  afterwards, 
he  called  "  my  stone-built  windmill." 

That  he  calls  it  his,  does  not  prove 
that  he  built  it.  It  is  supposable  that, 
finding  an  ancient  Scandinavian  for- 
tress, or  baptistery,  or  whatever  else, 
he  may  have  fitted  a  mill-wheel  to  it. 
But  at  all  events  nothing  of  this  kind 
was  done  in  the  earliest  times,  for  as 
late  as  1G63  Easton  wrote  in  his  journal, 
"  This  year  we  built  the  first  windmill," 
the  same  that  was  blown  down  in  1675. 
In  1G75,  Governor  Arnold  was  a  man 
of  sufficient  substance  to  be  able  to 
please  his  fancy ;  and  he  was  sixty  years 
old,  an  age  when  men  often  incline  to 
be  sentimental  in  respect  to  some  object 
connected  with  the  memories  of  their 
youth.  The  family  of  Arnold  is  imder- 
stood  in  Rhode  Island,  though  I  know 
not  on  what  authority,  to  have  come 
from  Warwickshire ;  and  it  is  a  fact 
worthy  of  observation,  that  one  piece 
of  the  Governor's  property  is  specified 


58 


IIISTOKY   OF  ^'EW  ENGLAND. 


[Book  I. 


founded,  it  perished ;  if  a  communication  with  Europe  was 
opened,   it  was  disused,   till  it  "was  renewed  in  another 


in  his  will  as  his  "  Lemmington  farm," 
the  name  bein-;  apparently  commemora- 
tive of  the  well-known  place  of  luxuri- 
ous summer  resort,  two  or  three  miles 
from  the  English  town  of  Warwick. 

We  ha^e  here  perhaps  an  explana- 
tion of  what  strikes  every  one  as  re- 
quiring to  be  accounted  for,  the  singu- 
lar architecture  of  a  building  intended 
for  the  humble  use  of  a  windmill  tor 
a  hamlet  of  humble  colonists.  Why 
these  stone  piers  and  arches,  and  this 
heavy  mass  of  masonry  iu  the  wall 
above  ? 

In  the  parish  of  Chesterton,  in  "War- 
wickshire, three  miles  from  Leaming- 
ton, on  the  property  of  Lord  Willough- 
by  d'Eresby,  stands  a  windmill  of  the 
same  construction.  I  describe  it  from 
personal  inspection,  having  visited  it  in 
the  summer  of  1856,  I  was  informed 
by  the  obliging  clergyman  who  directed 
me  from  Tachbi-ook  to  the  spot,  that  he 
had  been  told  there  were  others  in  the 
neighborhood,  of  similar  architecture, 
though  he  was  himself  almost  a  stran- 
ger there,  and  had  not  seen  such. 
This  building  at  Chesterton,  known  in 
the  vicinity  as  "the  stone  windmill," 
stands  on  an  embankment  three  feet 
high,  walled  around  and  with  a  fosse 
outside.  The  tower,  built  of  square 
hammered  blocks  of  stone,  is  between 
twenty-three  and  twenty-four  feet  in 
diameter,  and,  as  I  judged,  (for  I  had 
brought  no  instrument  to  measure  it,) 
about  twenty-six  feet  high  beneath  the 
dome-like  wooden  roof.  Above  four  of 
the  six  Roman  arches  are  square  win- 
dows, in  tlie  same  horizontal  plane,  in 
pairs  o|>posite  to  each  other.  The  piers, 
four  feet  in  dianu^ter,  are  square,  excej)t 
that  they  are  curved  on  the  inner  and 
outer  sides  to  tlif  circular  shape  of 
the  tower.  TIic  loft,  to  which  tlu;  win- 
dows admit  liglit,  is  reached  from  the 


area  within  the  piers  by  a  rude  wooden 
staircase. 


Mill  at  Cliesterton. 


To  this  the  building  in  Newport 
a   strong   general    resemblance, 


bears 
as    is 


Tower  at  Newport, 
apparent    from    a    glance    at    the    ac- 
companying delineations.     It  is  known 


Chap.  II.]  EAELY   VOYAGES   AND   EXPLORATIONS. 


59 


quarter.     Still  less  to  the  purpose  would  be  a  criticism, 
of  the  curious  tradition  of  the  voyage  of  Madoc  Alleged 
and  his  Welsh  followers  to  this  continent.^     The  ofwfdoo. 
story  is  not  without  important  corroboration,  fur-     ^'^''* 
nished  by  recent  observations  of  travellers  among  the  In- 
dian tribes.     But  if  Welshmen  settled  in  America,  it  was 
not  in  New  England.     If  the  Welsh  features,  complexion, 
and  language  are  found  anywhere  on  this  continent,  it  is 
in  Florida  and  among  tribes  west  of  the  Mississippi.^    Nor 
is  it  necessary  to  consider  the  mooted  question  of  the  au- 


to have  had,  within  a  century,  a  hemi- 
spherical roof,  and  a  floor  above  the 
arcade,  though  both  have  disappeared. 
The  cokunns,  Avith  their  bases  and  capi- 
tals, differ  from  those  at  Chesterton 
in  being  circular,  and  the  whole  ma- 
sonry is  in  a  ruder  style,  as  might  be 
expected  from  the  inferior  materials 
and  skill  afforded  by  a  new  settlement. 
Supposing  the  uncovered  Newport  mill 
to  have  lost  in  time  a  course  or  two  of 
stones  from  the  top,  its  diameter  and 
altitude  may  have  been  precisely  copied 
from  the  other.  There  is  a  tradition 
that  the  Chesterton  mill  was  built  after 
a  plan  of  Inigo  Jones,  and  the  story  is 
the  more  credited,  as  the  design  not 
only  may  have  been  an  architectural 
capriccio  to  gratify  some  fanciful  pro- 
prietor, but  is  said  also  to  combine  with 
architectural  symmetry  the  utilitarian 
merit,  by  admitting  a  free  passage  of 
air  through  the  arches,  of  avoiding  an 
eddy,  which  makes  a  back  sail  and  les- 
sens the  power  of  the  wind.  Jones  was 
more  than  sixty  years  old,  when  Arnold, 
about  twenty  years  old,  came  to  Amer- 
ica. If  the  Chesterton  mill  was  standing 
at  the  time  of  Arnold's  emigration,  and 
if  he  came  from  \Varwick,  he  had  been 
acquainted  with  it  as  one  of  the  wonders 
of  the  shire ;  and  he  knows  little  of  hu- 
man nature,  who  does  not  understand 
liow  the  thriving  man  in  the  decline  of 
his  days  should   have  been   moved   to 


I'cnew,  in  the  distant  continent  upon 
which  Providence  had  thrown  him,  the 
likeness  of  a  tenderly  remembered  ob- 
ject of  his  boyish  admiration. 

1  will  but  further  suggest,  that  Arnold 
did  not  live  on  as  good  terms  with  the 
Indians  as  some  of  his  Rhode  Island 
compatriots ;  and  it  is  supposable  that, 
in  building  a  mill,  he  had  in  view  at 
the  same  time  to  provide  what  might 
serve  as  a  strong-hold  in  case  of  need, 
or  what  might  at  all  events  wear  the 
appearance  of  preparation  against  mis- 
chief. 

These  facts  seem  to  me  to  afford  the 
most  probable  explanation  of  the  origin 
of  this  singular  building.  The  prints 
(that  of  the  English  mill  slightly  altered 
to  conform  it  to  my  own  observation),  as 
well  as  many  of  the  facts  in  this  note, 
are  taken  from  a  little  treatise  entitled 
''  The  Controversy  touching  the  Old 
Stone  Mill,"  &c.,  jiublished  at  Newport 
in  1851. 

i  llakluyt.  Book  III.  Chap.  XXI.  §  1. 
—  Belknap,  Amer.  Biog.,  I.  58. 

2  Mr.  Catlin  (North  American  In- 
dians, I.  126,  II.  Appendix,  A.)  became 
confident  of  what  he  at  first  only  pro- 
posed as  a  conjecture,  that  he  had 
found  descendants  of  Welshmen  among 
the  INIandans.  Mr.  Haven  has  treated 
the  subject  sagaciously  and  learnedly 
(Archtcology  of  the  United  States,  pp. 
26  ctseq.). 


60 


HISTORY   OF   NEW  ENGLAND. 


[Book  I. 


thenticity  of  the  relation  of  the  Venetian  brothers,  the 
Voyages  of  Zeni,  since,  at  all  events,  no  result  of  the  discov- 
ci're.  n'jo,  cry  therein  announced  has  taken  a  place  in  the 
John  vas      later  history.^     If  in  the  fifteenth  century  the  Por- 

Cortereai, 

1403,         tuguese  John  V  as  Cortereal,^  or  the  Pole  Szkol- 
andszkoi-     ney,^  reached  the  American  shore,  it  has  never 
14-c.         been  supposed  to  have  been  at  a  point  further 
south  than  Newfoundland. 

The  achievement  of  Columbus  did  not  fail  to  attract  in 
England  the  notice  which  its  conception  and  promise  had 
Discovery  soHcitcd  witli  SO  little  fruit.  Among  the  mer- 
AmeHcaby  cliauts  whoui  tlic  pcaccful  commercial  policy  of 
thecabots.  jjpi^|.y  tiig  Seventh  had  invited  to  that  country 
was  John  Cabot,  a  Venetian  settled  at  Bristol,  then,  and 
almost  down  to  the  present  century,  after  London  the  most 
considerable  mart  in  England.  To  him  and  his  three  sons, 
one  of  whom,  at  least,  Sebastian,  was  a  native  of 
Bristol,  royal  letters-patent  were  issued  (the  first 
English  letters-patent  for  discovery),  authorizing  them, 
with  such  companions  as  they  should  select,  to  "  sail  to 
all  parts,  countries,  and  seas  of  the  East  and  of  the  West 
and  of  the  North,  under  our  banners  and  ensigns,  with 
five  ships,  of  Avhat  burden  or  quantity  soever  they  may 
be,  to  seek  out,  discover,  and  find  whatsoever  isles,  coun- 


149G. 
March  5. 


J  The  rolafion  of  the  voyajre  of  the 
Zoni  was  first  piibhshcd  in  15.J8,  from 
iiiiperf(!ct  manuscripts,  and  was  adopted 
into  llamusio's  Collection  (Navigationi 
c  Viaggi,  Tom.  II.  pp.  2.30  et  scrj.)  in 
1.574,  and  thcnee  into  Ilakluyt's  Collec- 
tion of  Early  Voyages,  &c.  (III.  l.')7). 
The  claim  of  the  story  to  credit  has 
been  in  recent  times  more  faAorahly 
viewed,  since  tlu;  discussions  of  it  in 
1808  and  1818  by  the  learned  Vene- 
tian, C'ardinal  Ziirla.  i\Ialte-Rrnn,  who 
believed  it,  agrees  with  J.  llcinhold 
Forster  (History  of  Voyages,  &c.,  ir>f) 
et  sc'i  )  in  thinking  that  the  Estotilund 


therein  named  was  Newfoundland,  and 
DriKjeo,  New  England,  and  that  the 
natives  described  by  the  fisherman, 
from  wliom  Antonio  Zeno  is  repre- 
sented to  have  had  his  account,  were 
"  descendants  from  tlie  Scandinavian 
colonists  of  A'inland."  (Precis  de  la 
fieographie  Univei"sclle,  I.  405.)  On 
the  other  hand,  our  learned  country- 
man, I\Ir.  Biddle,  (Memoir  of  Sebastian 
Cabot,  pp.  .328 -.333,)  confidendy  con- 
cludes the  whole  story  to  have  been  an 
imy)osture. 

2  Humboldt,  E.xamen  Critique,  I.  278. 

3  Ibid.,  II.  152. 


CiiAP.  II.]  EARLY   VOYAGES   AND   EXPLORATIONS.  61 

tries,  regions,  or  provinces  of  the  heathen  and  infidels, 
whatsoever  they  may  be,  and  in  what  j^art  of  the  world 
soever  they  may  be,  which  before  this  time  have  been  un- 
known to  all  Christians."  Such  regions  were  to  be  occu- 
13ied,  subdued,  possessed,  and  governed  by  them  for  their 
own  behoof,  but  in  the  name  of  the  king  of  England.  The 
vessels  were  to  return  to  Bristol,  and  the  king  was  to 
have  one  fifth  part  of  the  profits  of  the  enterprise.^ 

In  command  of  three  hundred  men  in  two  ships,  per 
haps  equipped  and  victualled  wholly  or  partly  at  5497 
the  royal  charge,  and  perhaps  attended  by  one  or  '^''^■ 
two  other  vessels,"  Cabot  sailed  from  Bristol,  accompanied 
by  his  son  Sebastian.  The  expedition  touched  at  Iceland, 
and  thence  spread  its  sails  for  the  mysterious  West.  Un- 
expectedly soon,  for  the  adventurers  hoped  to  come  to  a 
harbor  in  Cathay,  on  the  eastern  shore  of  Asia, 

-       .       „         .  ''  111*.  June  24. 

their  lurther  course  was  arrested  by  the  American 

coast  of  Labrador  or  of  Newfoundland.     This  was  more 

than  a  year  before  Columbus  saw  the  American  continent.^ 

1  The  instniment  is  in  Rymer  (Foe-  Bristow, with  ■whom  ventured  also 

dera,  XII.  595),  Hakluyt  (Collections,  three  small  ships  of  London  merchants." 
III.  25),  and  Hazard  (Historical  Col-  (Lord  Bacon,  History  of  the  Reign  of 
lections,  I.  9).  John  Cabot  was  "  Gov-  King  Henry  the  Seventh,  188.) 
ernor  of  the  company  of  the  merchants  3  A  manuscript  in  the  British  Muse- 
of  Cathay  in  the  city  of  London."  urn  (Additional  MSS.,  7099)  is  a  copy 
(Strachey,  Histoiy  of  Travaile  into  by  JMr.  Craven  Orde  from  original  en- 
Virginia  Britannia,  139.  This  impor-  tries,  preserved  in  the  Remembrancer 
tant  tract  was  edited  in  1849,  for  the  Office,  of  the  privy  purse  expenses  of 
Hakluyt  Society,  by  that  accomplished  Henry  the  Seventh.  The  last  of  the  fol- 
geographer,  Mr.  R.  H.  Major,  from  a  lowing  entries  for  the  month  of  August 
manuscript  in  the  British  Museum.)  in  the  twelfth  year   of  that  monarch 

2  "  This  Gabato procured  him  may  record  the  king's  bounty  for  the 

[the  king]  to  man  and  victual  a  ship  at  discovery  of  North  America:  — 

"Aug.   9  [1497].     For  garnishing  of  a  Salette  [helmet]  .         £  38     0  IG 

"  "  20  Jacquetts  of  the  best  sorte         .         .         .        19     6     4 

"  "  Browdering  of  the  same  Jacquetts      .         .  18     0     0 

"  "  For  the  King's  Horse  Harncsse     .         .         .        21     4  10 

"  "  Garnishing  of  the  King's  sword  .         .  6  10     7 

"    10        "  To  him  that  found  the  new  isle         .         .         .        10     0     0." 

I  suppose  that  on  the  10th  of  August     ber.     Nor  was  so  small  a  gratuity  as 
the  Cabots  were  still  at  sea,  and  that     ten  pounds  likely  to  be  offered  in  any 
tliey  did  not  reach  England  till  Octo-     case  to  so  thriving  a  citizen  as  John 
VOL.  I.  6 


62  HISTORY   OF   KEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

In  vain  search  of  the  northwestern  passage,  the  Cabots 
proceeded  northwardly  as  far  as  the  sixty-seventh  degree 
of  north  hititude.  The  cokl,  though  in  July,  being  such 
as  to  discournge  the  crews,  they  prevailed  on  their  com- 
mander to  reverse  his  course,  and  he  ran  down  the  coast 
as  far  as  the  thirty-eighth  (perhaps  to  the  thirty-sixth) 
degree  of  north  latitude,  wdience,  his  provisions  failing, 
and  the  prospect  of  an  accomplishment  of  the  special 
object  of  the  voyage  appearing  as  remote  as  ever,  he  re- 
solved to  return  to  Ene^land.      He  brouo-ht  his 

October.  .  ^  i  i  • 

vessels  into  port  in  safety,  and  three  American 
savages  were  presented  to  the  king  as  trophies  of  the  ex- 
ploit.^ There  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  the  Cabots  saw- 
more  of  New  England  than  some  of  its  headlands,  though 
they  probably  ran  along  the  coast  of  INIaine,  and  may  have 
looked  into  Massachusetts  Bay. 

The  insurrection  in  favor  of  the  pretended  Duke  of 
1498  York  being  quelled,  and  the  king  again  at  lei- 

Feb.  3.  sure,  a  new  patent  Avas  issued,  authorizing  John 
Cabot,  "  by  him,  his  deputy,  or  deputies  sufficient,"  to 
"  take  at  his  pleasure  six  English  ships,"  of  not  more 
than  two  hundred  tons'  burden,  and  renew  the  experi- 
ment. He  died  presently  after ;  but  it  has  been  supposed 
that  the  expedition  proceeded,  under  the  command  of  his 
son  Sebastian.  If  Sebastian  sailed,  there  is  no  doubt  that 
he  returned  in  safety,  for  he  is  known  to  have  lived  fifty 
years  beyond  this  time.  But  the  fact  of  a  second  expe- 
dition is  so  uncertain,  and  the  accounts  of  it  are  so  con- 
fused with  those  of  the  voyage  which  effected  the  first 
discovery  of  the  North  American  continent,  that,  while 
some  writers   have   maintained   it  to  have    been  in  the 


CaV)Ot.     It  may  be  that,  wlicn  the  Cab-  ^  "  Tliis  year  -wore  brought  unto  the 

Ota  turned  pouth  after  the  discontents  king  three  men  taken  in  the  new  found 

among  their  men,  a  vessel   left  tliem,  islands    by    Sebastian    Cabato,    before 

and  returned  to  England  with  her  re-  named,  in  anno  1498 ;  these  men  were 

port  of  the  great  news,  and  that  her  clothed  in  beasts'  skins,  and  ate   raw 

commander  received  this  present.  flesh."    (Stowe,  Annates,  483,  484.) 


Chap.  II.]  EARLY   VOYAGES   AND  EXPLORATIONS.  63 

second  voyage  that  the  exploration  towards  the  southwest 
was  made,  others  have  comprehended  the  whole  course 
of  transactions  in  the  expedition  commanded  by  John 
Cabot.^  Sebastian  subsequently  entered  the  service  of  the 
king  of  Spain.  But  in  the  well-nigh  inextricable  confu- 
sion of  the  accounts  of  his  adventures,  there  ap- 

1      T  1  -11     -.  Circ.  1517. 

pears  some  reason  to  believe  that  at  a  still  later 

period  he  made  a  third  voyage  from   England  to  North 

America. 

The  discovery  by  the  Cabots  laid  the  foundation  of  the 
claim  of  the  British  crown  to  its  North  American  terri- 
tory.^ It  could  scarcely  have  been  in  ignorance  voyage  of 
of  their  exploit  that  the  Portuguese  admiral,  Gas-  ^^Zi!  ^°" 
par  Cortereal,  in  command  of  a  similar  exploring  isoo-isoi. 
expedition,  sailed  along  the  same  coast  six  or  seven  hun- 
dred miles,  probably  between  Hudson's  Strait  and  Cape 
E,ace.  He  returned  with  glowing  reports  of  the  fruitful- 
ness  of  the  country  in  herbage  and  in  trees  fit  for  ship- 

1  INIr.  Biddle,  who,  at  all  events,  has  phen  Burroygh's  ship  from  Gravesend. 

expended  more  diligence  upon  the  sub-  But  even  on  that  supposition  he  was 

ject  than  any  other  writer,  maintains  only  twenty-one  years  old  at  the  time 

the  paradox,  that,  in  the  first  vo}'age,  of  the  first  expedition  from  Bristol,  an 

John  Cabot,  unacquainted  with  nauti-  age  altogether  too  immature  for  the  con- 

cal  affairs,  and  only  mentioned  in  the  duct  of  such  an  enterprise.     Humboldt 

patent  because  the  king  meant  to  have  (Examen  Critique,  II.  445)  places  bis 

a  money-guaranty  for  his  own  invest-  birth  in  1477.    Mr.  Patrick  Frazer  Tyt- 

ment,  was  but  the  subordinate,  or  the  ler  has  discussed  Biddle's  theory  of  the 

irresponsible  companion,  of  his  forward  insignificance  of  John  Cabot  (Histori- 

son    (Memoir  of  Sebastian  Cabot,  p.  cal  View  of  the  Progress  of  Discovery, 

4detse(j.).     The  king,  however,  in  the  Appendix).    A  proper  treatment  of  the 

second  patent,  authorizes  John  to  take  questions   arising   out   of  the  voyages 

six  ships,  "  and  them  convey  and  lead  of  the  Cabots  would  occupy  a  volume 

to  the  lands  and  isles  of  late  found  hij  rather  than  a  note.      New  and  impor- 

the  said  John  in  our  name  and  by  our  tant  light  will  be  thrown  upon  them  by 

commandment."  (Original Patent, found  the    work    impatiently    expected   from 

by  Biddle  in  the  Rolls  Chapel,  as  quoted  the  able  hands  of  Dr.  J.  G.  Kohl,  on 

by  him.  Memoir,  &c.,  p.  76.)    Sebastian  early  voyages  to  the  western  continent, 

may  have  "  frisked  beneath  the  burden  2  u  Qld  John  Cabot,  the  father,  from 

of  fourscore,"  when  in  1556  (Hakluyt,  whom  only,  indeed,  we  have  our  ear- 

I.  306)  "he  entered  into  the  dance  him-  liest  claim   and   interest    (as   we   may 

self,  among  the  rest  of  the  young  and  right  well)  to  this  country."    Strachey, 

lusty  company,"  on  the  sailing  of  Ste-  140. 


64  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGL.VXD.  [Book  I. 

building,  and  with  a  number  of  captive  Indians,  whom  he 
sold  as  slaves.^ 

An  expedition  to  be  followed   by  consequences  much 

more  important  was  that  of  the  Florentine,  John 
ve'razzaiio.    Vciazzano.     Embarking  for  Xorth  America  in 

the  service  of  France,  he  kept  the  shore  in  view 
at  intervals  from  the  thirty-fourth  to  near  the  fiftieth  de- 
gree of  north  latitude.  He  entered  Hudson's  Eiver  more 
tlian  eighty  years  before  Hudson,  and  for  fifteen  days  lay 
at  anchor  in  the  harbor  of  what  is  now  Newport."  The 
natives,  who  came  about  him  in  canoes,  and  were  freely 
admitted  on  board,  were  well  formed,  with  regular  fea- 
tures, clear  complexions,  and  long  hair  carefully  dressed. 
What  attire  they  had  was  of  skins.  The  women  were  mod- 
est, and  never  visited  the  vessels.  The  seamen  gratified 
their  visitors  with  presents  of  beads  and  other  trifles,  and 
the  parties  separated  from  each  other  mutually  pleased. 
Verazzano  sailed  up  Xarragansett  Bay,  and  recorded  his 
admiration  of  its  beautiful  scenery.  Steering  thence  to- 
wards the  northeast,  and  keeping  the  coast  of  Maine  in 

sicrht  for  the  distance   of  fifty  leao^ues,  he  cast 

Mayo.  ®  •  ^  ,       , 

anchor  next  in  some  harbor  apparently  of  Xova 
Scotia.  Here  he  found  the  landscape  uninviting,  and  the 
inhabitants  inhospitable.  But  partly  by  stealth,  partly  by 
intimidation,  he  succeeded  in  making  an  exploration  of  the 
interior  country  for  some  miles.  He  kept  on  his  course 
amons:  the  islands  to  the  northeast,  till  his  pro- 
visions  began  to  fail.  After  a  six  months  absence 
he  arrived  at  the  port  of  Dieppe,  to  report  to  his  master 

1  Purchas.  Pilgrims,  I.  915.  York  Historical  Society  (New  Series, 

'  The  full  narrative  of  Verazzano's  I.  39  et  seq.).     It  presents  considerable 

voyage,  addressed  by  him  to  Francis  the  verbal    variations    from   that   used   by 

First,  was  published  by  Ramusio  (Navi-  Ramusio. 

pationi  et  Viafrei.  III.  420  et  seq.).     A  Had  the  stone  tower,  so  dear  to  the 

translation  by  Mr.  J.  G.  Copswell,  from  Northern  Antiquaries,  been  standing  in 

a  manuscript  copy  in  the  Magliabecchian  1524,  it  is  to  the  last  degree  e.xtraordi- 

Library  at  Florence,   has  lately  been  nary  that  Verazzano  should  not  have 

published  in  the  Collections  of  the  New  mentioned  it. 


Chap.  II.]  EARLY  VOYAGES   AND   EXPLORATIONS.  65 

the  important  achievement  of  a  survey  of  scarcely  less 
than  two  thousand  miles  of  the  North  American  coast. 

Before  Verazzano's  voyage  was  kno\Mi  in  Spain,  Ste- 
phen Gomez,  in  a  caravel  of  sixty  tons'  burden,  fitted  out 
at  the  joint  expense  of  the  Emperor  Charles  the  Fifth  and 
some  merchants,  sailed  from  Coruna  in  quest  of 

,  ^  1524,  or  1525. 

the  Northwest  Passage.  Having  made  the  coast 
of  Newfoundland,  he  steered  southwardly,  and  coasted 
along  "a  pretty  large  extent  of  countr}',''^  "as  far  south 
as  the  fortieth  degree  of  latitude."^  It  is  probable  that 
he  ran  across  from  Cape  Sable  to  Cape  Cod,  and  then 
through  Lon^:  Island  Sound  to  Hudson's  River,  named 
by  him  Rio  de  San  Antonio^  and  that  he  finally  left  the 
coast  at  the  Capes  of  the  Delaware.^ 

A  large  field  for  industry,  and  a  tempting  source  of 
profit,  had  been  opened  to  the  adventurers  of  Eu-  ^..^.^^  ^^ 
rope.      Small   fishing-vessels  from  Biscay,   Brit-  fishermen 

'■  ^  and  others. 

tany,  and  Normandy  had  been  only  three  years 
behind  Cortereal.  Denvs,  a  Frenchman,  had 
made  a  chart  of  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence  and 
of  the  adioininof  coast.      Aubert,  or  Hubert,  of 

''  ~  _  _  1508. 

the  same  nation,  had  sailed  up  the  river  of  that 
name.      The    Banks   of   Newfoundland  were  visited   by 
fishermen,  who  may  have  pursued  the  cod  and  mackerel 
so  far  as  to  gain  some  acquaintance  with  the  convenient 
harbors  of  Massachusetts  Bay.     Only  twenty  years  had 
passed  after  the  first  voyage  of  the  Cabots,  when      ^^^_ 
fifty  ships,  French,  Spanish,  and  Portuguese,  were 
employed  in  this  business.     Jacques  Cartier,  sail-      ^^ 
ing  up  the  St.  Lawrence  to  Hochela^a,  now  Mon- 
treal, and  building  a  stockade  on  the  hill  at  Que- 
bee,  inaugurated   what  was   to  become   the  vast 
domain  of  France  on  this  continent. 


1  "Buen   pedaco   de   tierra."      Go-  cidentales,  Dec.  III.  lib.  iv.  cap.   20; 
mara  (Historia  de  las  Indias,  Cap.  40).  lib.  viii.  cap.  8. 

2  Herrera,  Historia  de  las  Indias  Oc-         3  The  object  of  liis  expedition  re- 

6* 


66  HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

It  was  half  a  century  after  Cabot  had  found  North 
America  for  England,  before  English  legislation  gave  any 
token  of  a  sense  of  the  value  of  the  acquisition.     A  fruit- 
less  exploring    expedition,   conducted    with   two 
vessels,   was   the   only  proof  that   the   attention 
of  Henry  the  Eighth  was  ever  turned  in  that  direction. 
At   length   an    act    of   Parliament,   in   the   first 

3548.  . 

year  of  King  Edward  the  Sixth,  encouraged  the 
fishery  at  Newfoundland  by  protecting  those  engaged  in 
it  from  exactions  which  had  been  practised  by  the  ad- 
miralty "  in  the  few  years  now  last  past."  ^  The  impulse 
given  to  English  affairs  in  all  departments  from  the  be- 
ginning of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  did  not  fail  to  manifest 
itself  in  this  form  of  enterprise.     But  when  there  were 

fiftv  Enojlish  vessels  on  the  Newfoundland  Banks, 

1577. 

there  were  as  many  from  Portugal,  twice  as  many 
from  Spain,  and  thrice  as  many  from  France.^ 

With  the  last  half  of  the  reign  of  that  sovereign  began 
an  extraordinary  development  among  her  subjects  of  a 
passion  for  distant  exploration  and  settlement,  kept  up  for 
half  a  century  against  the  discouragement  of  an  almost 
unbroken  succession  of  disasters  and  defeats.  Mexico, 
Peru,  Chili,  and  the  AVest  India  Islands,  conquered  and 
colonized  by  Spain,  were  pouring  immense  wealth  into  the 
mother  country,  through  the  channels  of  trade  as  well  as 
by  the  direct  transportation  of  the  precious  metals.  Lon- 
don and  Bristol  could  not  behold  unmoved  the  strange 
prosperity  of  Cadiz ;  and  nothing  better  pleased  the  Eng- 
lish people  of  the  coast  than  the  prospect  of  a  war  with  the 

quired  him  to  look  into  tlie  inlets.    The  and,  if  Ilakluyt  was  correctly  informed 

best   inferences    respecting   his   move-  (III.  171),  they  exacted  a  sort  of  tribute 

ments  are.  to  Ik;  derived  from  a  map  for  affordino;  protection  and  keeping  the 

published  four  years  afterwards  by  the  peace.     Sec  on  this  whole  subject  the 

cosmographer  of  the  Emperor.  important    "  Report   on   the   Principal 

1  Tlie  act  is  in  Hazard,  State  Papers,  Fishcnes  of  the  American  Seas,"  pre- 
I.  22,  2.'J.  pared  in  1853,  by  Mr.  Lorenzo  Sabine, 

2  Th"  English  ships,  however,  were  for  the  Treasury  Department  of  the 
of  »>«ca  (^r  (^Jajjg  and   better   manned,  United  States. 

\ 


Chap.  II.]  EARLY   VOYAGES  AND  EXPLORATIONS.  67 

great  Catholic  power,  involving  the  plunder  of  rich  galle- 
ons and  the  sack  of  American  treasuries.  But  the  genius 
of  maritime  adventure  could  not  be  always  warlike.  The 
same  impulse  which  led  Hawkins  and  Drake  by  rough 
ways  to  fame  and  fortune  in  the  south,  sent  Frobisher  on 
a  more  perilous  errand  to  solve  the  problem  of  the  polar 
seas.  His  wild  adventures,  begun  with  a  renewed  search 
for  a  northwest  passage  to  Asia,  and  continued  and  ended 
with  a  quest  for  gold  ingots  under  the  Arctic  Circle,  do 
not  connect  themselves  with  the  subject  of  this  narrative. 
But  a  different  fruit  of  the  zeal  for  maritime  exploit  which 
revived  in  the  palmy  days  of  the  virgin  queen  was  the 
voyage  of  the  heroic  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert,^  the  first 
which  was  undertaken  with  a  design  of  permanent  oc- 
cupation of  American  territory  by  Englishmen. 

Gilbert,  a  friend  and  half-brother  of  Sir  Walter  Kaleigh, 
had  been  his  fellow-soldier  in  the  Protestant  ar-  ^.,^    , 

Gilbert's 

mies  of  France,  and  had  served  in  the  EngLish  project  of  a 

■!-»      T  XT  1    •  1    •       T  1     settlement. 

Parliament.     He  was  versed  in  geographical  and 
commercial  knowledge,  and  was  known  as  a  writer  by 
a  "  Discourse  to  prove  a  Passage  by  the  Northwest  to 
Cathaia  and  the  East  Indies."      With  views  more  com- 
prehensive than  were  indicated  by  this  treatise,  he  had 
cordially  embraced  with  Paleigh  the  scheme  of  British 
colonization  in  North  America.     The  queen  gave     1578. 
him   a   patent    conveying    privileges    similar   to    •'""^"• 
those  conferred  by  her  grandfather  on  Cabot.^     He  was 
empowered  to  discover,   possess,   and  govern  all  remote 
heathen  and  barbarous   countries  not   occupied   by  any 
Christian  people.     He  and  his  heirs  and  assigns  were  to  be 
proprietors  of  such  countries,  on  paying  homage  therefor 
to  the  crown  of  England,  and  one  fifth  part  of  any  precious 
metals  which  might  be  found.     They  were  to  have  admi- 


^  "  Vir  acer  et  alacer,  belli  pacisqiie        ^  Jt  jg  Jq  Hakluyt  (III.   1 74)   and 
artibus   -'--"^  "      CCamden,    Annales,     Hazard  (I.  24- 28). 
367.) 


68  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

ralty  jurisdiction  o^er  the  neighboring  seas  ;  and  all  per- 
sons were  forbidden  to  settle  within  two  hundred  leagues 
of  any  place  which  they  should  occupy  within  six  years. 

Gilbert's  first  attempt  miscarried,  through   the  incon- 
stancy of  some  of  the  associates  whom  he  had  engaged, 
and  the  loss  of  one  of  his  ships  at  sea.     Eenewing  his 
1583.         preparations  with  large  pecuniary  sacrifice,  he  set 
June  11.       gg^Q  ^  second  time,  with  two  hundred  and  sixty 
men,  embarked  in  five  vessels.     He  approached 
the  American  coast  on  the  fifty-first  parallel  of 
north  latitude  ;  and,  shifting  his  course,  entered 
in  a  few  days  the  harbor  of  St.  John's  in  New- 
foundland, where  he  found  no  fewer  than  thirty-six  ves- 
sels of  diff"erent  nations.     Pitching  a  tent  on  the 

All*'.  5. 

shore,  he  commanded  the  presence  of  all  mer- 
chants and  ship-masters,  English  and  Continental.  There, 
his  commission  being  read  and  interpreted,  a  turf  and  a 
twig  were  delivered  to  him  in  token  of  investiture,  and 
proclamation  was  made  of  his  authority  to  hold  and  gov- 
ern the  country  for  two  hundred  leagues  around.  He 
promulgated  three  laws ;  the  first  establishing  the  Church 
of  England;  the  second  declaring  it  treason  to  call  in 
question  the  queen's  title ;  the  third  making  the  utterance 
of  words  disrespectful  to  her  Majesty  a  misdemeanor  pun- 
ishable with  loss  of  ears  and  forfeiture  of  goods.  A  pillar 
was  erected,  to  which  were  affixed  the  royal  arms  graven 
on  lead,  and  grants  of  land  were  made  in  severalty  for 
stages  for  the  curing  of  fish. 

The  search  for  precious  metals  was  unavailing.  The 
company  were  generally  unused  to  hardship.  Many  sick- 
ened. Some  died.  Some  deserted  with  one  of  the  vessels. 
Some  hid  in  the  woods,  till  they  should  have  an  opportu- 
nity to  escape.^     Before  a  month  was  out,  it  was  plain 

1  The  story  in   tho,   most  authentic  she  went  down.    (See  Ilakluyt,  I.  679, 

shape   is   from    the    liand   of    Edward  III.  143,  184 -208 ;  Purchas,  III.  808  ; 

Hayes,  captain  of  the  Hind,  which  was  Harris,  I.  583.) 
in  company  with  Gilbert's  vessel  when 


Chap.  IL]         EARLY   VOYAGES  AND   EXPLORATIONS.  69 

that  the  heart  of  the  enterprise  was  broken.     Whether  m 
search  of  provisions  or  for  further  discovery,  Gil- 

/»  1    .         ^"S-  20. 

bert  put  to  sea  from  St.  John  with  three  of  his 
vessels,  leaving  the  other  to  bring  away  the  sick.  Off 
Cape  Breton,  one  of  the  squadron  was  lost,  with  all  but 
fourteen  of  her  crew.  Discouraged  by  this  disaster  added  to 
the  earlier  adverse  events,  the  admiral  resolved  to  return 
to  England.  With  the  constancy  which  belonged  to  his 
character,  he  chose  for  his  place  the  place  of  greatest  dan- 
ger, and  refused  to  leave  the  less  seaworthy  vessel,  which 
was  but  of  ten  tons'  burden,  and  "  overcharged  with  net- 
ting: and  small  artillery."     In  a  violent  storm  she 

^  •'     .  Sept.  9. 

went  to  the  bottom,  with  all  her  company.  He 
was  sitting  on  her  deck,  calmly  engaged  in  reading,  the 
last  time  he  was  seen  from  the  companion  ship.  The  last 
words  which  had  been  heard  from  him  were,  "  We  are  as 
near  heaven  by  sea  as  by  land."  —  And  so  ended  the  first 
attempt  at  British  colonization  on  this  continent.  It  was 
destined  to  have  successors  in  its  brave  promise,  and  in 
its  dismal  fate.  It  wanted  an  element  of  force  which  the 
world  could  not  yet  supply.  Rank,  wealth,  royal  patron- 
age, were  embarked  in  it.  But  the  one  thing  needful  was 
not  there. 

The  English  claim  to  Newfoundland  having  been  thus 
formally  authenticated,  Sir  Bernard  Drake  visited 
it  with  an  English  squadron,  and  made  prize  of 
some  Portuguese  ships,  with  their  cargoes  of  fish,  oil,  and 
furs.     John  Davis,  in  command  of  two  barks,  in  ^    , 

'  '  Further  ex- 

the  service  of  a  private  association  of  certain  no-  piorations. 
blemen   and  others,   discovered   Gilbert's   Sound, 
Cumberland  Straits,  the  Cumberland  Islands,  and  Lum- 
ley's  Inlet.      George  Waymouth   conducted   an- 
other profitless  quest  for  the  Northwest  Passage. 
Silvester  Wyat  sailed  up  the  Gulf  of  St.  Law- 

•'  ^  ,  1594. 

rence  for  a  cargo  of  whales'  fins  and  oil. 

But  as  yet  New  England  had  been  almost  overlooked. 


70  '  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

Before  the  seventeenth  century,  there  was  no  exploration, 
properly  so  called,  of  any  part  of  that  country,  nor  appar- 
ently any  project  for  its  colonization.  Though  Verazzano 
had  landed,  and  not  improbably  others,  Gosnold  was  not 
only  the  first  Englishman,  but  the  first  European,  who  is 
known  to  have  set  up  a  dwelling  on  the  soil  of  New 
England. 

After  Gilbert's  death  his  patent  was  renewed  to  Sir 
1584.  Walter  E,aleigh.^  The  failure  of  Raleigh's  at- 
March25.  tcmpts  to  colouizc  Virginia  does  not  require  to 
be  related  in  this  history.  Among  those  who  had  sailed 
Voyage  of  1^  ^^^  scrvlcc  iu  that  enterprise  was  Bartholomew 
^'""'"''^-  Gosnold,  a  mariner  of  the  West  of  England. 
Under  his  command,  with  the  consent  of  Sir  Walter 
Raleigh,"  and  at  the  cost,  among  others,  of  Henry  Wri- 
othesley.  Earl  of  Southampton,^  the  accomplished  patron 
of  Shakespeare,  a  small  vessel,  called  the  Concord,  was 
equipped  for  exploration  in  "  the  north  part  of  Virginia," 
with  a  view  to  the  establishment  of  a  colony.  At  this 
time,  in  the  last  year  of  the  Tudor  dynasty,  and  nineteen 
years  after  the  fatal  termination  of  Gilbert's  enterprise, 
there  was  no  European  inhabitant  of  North  America,  ex- 

1  See  Raleigh's  patent  in  Hakluyt  Historical  Collections,  the  two  foimer 
(III.  297)  or  in  Hazard  (I.  33-38).  being  reprinted  from   Purchas's  "  Pil- 

2  "  By  the  permission  of  the  Honor-  grims,"  the  last  from  the  edition  pub- 
able  Knight,  Sir  Walter  Raleigh."  lishod  at  the  time.  Belknap,  misled  by 
(Title-page  to  Brereton's  Brief  and  Purchas,  ascribed  the  "  Brief  and  True 
True  Relation.)  The  three  original  au-  Relation"  to  Rosier,  who  afterwards 
thorities  on  the  subject  of  this  voyage  sailed  with  Waymouth ;  but  it  is  in  the 
are  a  short  letter  written  by  Gosnold  to  form  of  a  letter  to  Sir  Walter  Raleigh, 
his  father  upon  his  return  to  England  ;  and  is  subscribed  with  Brereton's  name 
"The   Relation   of   Captain   Gosnold's  at   length.     Strachcy   evidently  wrote 

Voyage delivered  by  Gabriel  Ar-  with  Brereton's  book  in  his  hands;  but 

cher,  a  Gentleman  in  the  said  Voyage"  he  adds  matter,  probably  obtained  by 

(the  same  person  who  was  afterwards  oral  information. 

so  troublesome  to  Smith  in  Virginia);  3  Strachey  (Historic  of  Travaile,  &c., 

and  the  "  Brief  and  True  Relation"  of  153).     Belknap  says  (Amer.  Biog.,  H. 

John  Brereton,  "one  of  the  Voyage."  101),  "  At  whose  expense  he  undertook 

These   documents   are  in  the  twenty-  the  voyage  to  the  northern  part  of  Vir- 

eighth    volume    of   the    ISIa-ssachusetts  ginia,  does  not  appear." 


1602. 
March  26. 


Chap.  II.]  EARLY   VOYAGES   AND   EXl'LORATIONS.  71 

cept  those  of  Spanish  birth  in  Florida,  and  some  twenty 
or  thirty  French,  the  miserable  relics  of  two  frustrated 
attempts  to  settle  what  they  called  New  France. 

Gosnold  sailed  from  Falmouth  with  a  company  of 
thirty-two  persons,  of  whom  eight  were  seamen, 
and  twenty  were  to  become  planters.  Taking 
a  straight  course  across  the  Atlantic,  instead  of  the  in- 
direct course  by  the  Canaries  and  the  West  Indies  which 
had  been  hitherto  pursued  in  voyages  to  Virginia,  at  the 
end  of  seven  weeks  he  saw  land  in  Massachusetts 

May  14. 

Bay,  probably  near  what  is  now  Salem  harbor.^ 
Here  a  boat  came  off,  of  Basque  build,  manned  by  eight 
natives,  of  whom  two  or  three  were  dressed  in  European 
clothes,  indicating  the  presence  of  earlier  foreign  voyagers 
in  these  waters.  Xext  he  stood  to  the  southward,^  and 
his  crew  took  great  quantities  of  codfish  by  a  headland, 
called  by  him  for  that  reason  Cape  Cod,  the  name  which 
it  retains.  Gosnold,  Brereton,  and  three  others,  went  on 
shore,  the  first  Englishmen  who  are  known  to  have  set  foot 
upon  the  soil  of  Massachusetts,  They  fell  in  with  a  young 
Indian,^  and  observed  the  unbroken  extent  of  the  deep 
sand-heaps.     Sounding  his  way  cautiously  along,  first  in 

1  The  description  agrees  with  this  in  breadth  half  a  foot,  for  a  breastplate ; 
part  of  the  coast.  Brereton  says  (Mass.  the  ears  of  all  the  rest  had  pendants  of 
Hist.  Coll.,  XXVIII.  8G)  tiiat  they  copper."  (Ibid.,  75.  Comp.  Brereton, 
made  land  in  the  latitude  of  43°,  which  Ibid.,  91.)  Notices  to  the  same  effect 
is  that  of  the  mouth  of  the  PIscataqua.  abound  in  the  early  voyages.  Where 
But  Wa}mouth  found  Gosnold's  chart  the  aborigines  of  New  England  could 
to  be  erroneous  in  this  part  of  the  de-  have  supplied  themselves  with  plates  of 
lineation.  copper,  remains  a  question.      Perhaps 

2  Archer  says  they  steered  loest  (Ibid.,  they  were  small  pieces  of  virgin  ore, 
74).  But  this  could  not  have  been,  picked  up  here  and  there.  Perhaps 
Archer's  account,  owing  not  improba-  they  had  worked  their  way  from  hand 
bly  to  errors  in  the  printing,  is  ex-  to  hand,  from  the  region  of  the  Great 
tremely  confused.                   '  Lakes.     More  probably  they  were  the 

3  He  "  had  certain  plates  of  coppe  fruit  of  traffic  with  recent  foreign  vis- 
hanging  to  his  ears."  (Archer,  Ibid.,  Itors.  The  last  is  Mr.  Haven's  opin- 
74.)  Of  the  natives  afterwards  seen,  ion  (Archaeology  of  the  United  States, 
"one  had  hanging  about  his  neck  a  108,  in  Smithsonian  Contributions  to 
plate  of  rich  copper,  in  length  a  foot,  Knowledge,  YIII.). 


72  HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

a  southerly  and  then  in  a  westerly  direction,  and  probably 
passinof  to  the  south  of  Nantucket,  Gosnold  next 

May  22.  ^  ^ 

landed  on  a  small  island,  now  called  No  Man's 
Land.  To  this  he  gave  the  name  of  Martha's  Vineyard, 
since  transferred  to  the  larger  island  further  north,  the 
"western  extremity  of  which,  now  known  as  Gay  Head,  he 
designated  as  Dover  Cliff,  in  allusion  to  its  resemblance 
to  the  chalk  bluff  bearing  that  name  on  his  native  shore. 
The  island  on  which  the  landing  was  made,  was,  says 
Archer,^  "  most  pleasant,  for  we  found  it  full  of  wood, 
■\jines,  gooseberry-bushes,  hurt-berries,  raspberries,  eglan- 
tine, &c.  Here  we  had  cranes,  herns,  shoulers,  geese,  and 
divers  other  birds,  which  there,  at  that  time,  upon  the 
cliffs,  being  sandy  with  some  rocky  stones,  did  breed  and 
had  young.  In  this  place  we  saw  deer.  Here  we  rode 
in  eight  fathoms,  near  the  shore,  where  we  took  store  of 
cod,  as  before  at  Cape  Cod,  but  much  better.  This  island 
is  sound,  and  hath  no  danger  about  it." 

South  of  Buzzard's  Bay,  and  separated  on  the  south 
by  the  Vineyard  Sound  from  Martha's  Vineyard,  is  scat- 
tered the  group  denoted  on  modern  maps  as  the  Elizabeth 
Islands.  The  southwesternmost  of  these,  no\y  known  by 
the  Indian  name  of  Cuttyhunk,  was  denominated  by  Gos- 
nold Elizabeth  Island.  It  was  "  overgrown  with  wood 
and  rubbish ;  viz.  oaks,  ashes,  beech,  walnut,  witch-hazel, 
sassafrage,  and  cedars,  with  divers  others  of  unknown 
names.  The  rubbish  is  wild  pease,  young  sassafrage, 
cherry-trees,  vines,  eglantine,  gooseberry-bushes,  haw- 
thorn, honeysuckles,  with  others  of  the  like  quality. 
The  herbs  and  roots  are  strawberries,  rasps,  ground-nuts, 
alexandcr,  surrin,  tansy,  &c.,  without  count.""  Here 
Gosnold  found  a  pond  two  miles  in  circumference,  sepa- 
rated from  the  sea  on  one  side  by  a  beach  thirty  yards 
wide,  and  enclosing  "  a  rocky  islet,  containing  near  an 

J  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  XXVIII.  70. 

2  Archer,  Ibid.,  77.      Coinp.  Brcreton,  Ibid.,  88,  89. 


Chap.  II.]  EARLY   VOYAGES   AND   EXPLORATIONS.  73 

acre  of  ground,  full  of  wood  and  rubbish."     This  islet 
was  fixed  upon  for  a  settlement.     In  three  weeks, 

May  28. 

while  a  part  of  the  company  were  absent  on  a 
trading    expedition   to   the  mainland,   the  rest  dug  and 
stoned  a  cellar,  prepared  timber,  and  built  a  house,  which 
they  fortified  with  palisades,  and  thatched  with  sedge.^ 

Proceeding  to  make  an  inventory  of  their  provisions, 
they  found  that,  after  supplying  the  vessel,  which  was  to 
take  twelve  men  on  the  return  voyage,  there  would  be  a 
sufficiency  for  only  six  weeks  for  the  twenty  men  who 
would  remain.  A  dispute  arose  upon  the  question  whether 
the  party  to  be  left  behind  would  receive  a  share  in 
the  proceeds  of  the  cargo  of  cedar,  sassafras,  furs,  and 
other  commodities  which  had  been  collected.  A  small 
party,  going  out  in  quest  of  shell-fish,  was  attacked  by 
some  Indians.  AVith  men  having  already,  it  is  likely,  lit- 
tle stomach  for  such  cheerless  work,  these  circumstances 
easily  led  to  the  decision  to  abandon  for  the  present  the 
scheme  of  a  settlement ;    and   in  the   following    , 

'  o      June  18. 

month  the  adventurers  sailed  for  England,  and, 
after  a  voyage  of  five  weeks,  arrived  at  Exmouth.  "  ^  ^" 
The  first  attempt  at  European  colonization  in  New  Eng- 
land was  made  within  what  is  now  the  State  of  Massa- 
chusetts, and  this  was  its  present  issue.  Gosnold  lived 
five  years  longer,  to  take  within  that  time  an  important 
part  in  the  movement  which  brought  about  the  perma- 
nent occupation  of  Virginia. 


1  "  To  this  spot  I  went  on  tlie  20th  birds.     We  had  the  supreme  satisfac- 

day  of  June,  1797 The  protect-  tion  to  find  the  cellar  of  Gosnold's  store- 

ing  hand  of  Nature  has  reserved  this  house,  the  stones  of  which  were  evi- 

favorite  spot  to  herself.    Its  fertility  and  dently    taken    from    the    neighboring 

its  productions  are  exactly  the  same  as  beach,  the  rocks  of  the  islet  being  less 

in  Gosnold's  time,  excepting  the  wood,  movable  and  lying  in  ledges."     (Bel- 

of  which  there  is  none.     Every  species  knap,   American    Biography,   11.    114, 

of  what  he  calls  rubbish,  with  straw-  115.)      Another   party   of  antiquaries 

berries,  pease,  tansies,  and  other  fruits  identified  the   spot   in   1817.      (North 

and  herbs,  appear  in  rich  abundance,  American  Review,  V.  313  ) 
unmolested  by  any  animal  but  aquatic 

VOL.   I.  7 


74  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

The  expedition  of  Gosnold  was  pregnant  with  conse- 
quences, though  their  development  was  slow.  The  ac- 
counts of  the  hitherto  unknown  country,  which  were  cir- 
culated by  his  company  on  their  return,  excited  an  earnest 
interest.  Among  others,  Richard  Hakluyt,  a  prebendary 
of  Bristol  cathedral,  already  known  as  a  learned  cosmogra- 
pher  and  author  of  a  copious  account  of  English  exploits 
in  navigation,^  engaged  actively  in  the  scheme  of  further 
exploration  in  New  England,  or  North  Virginia^  as,  after 
Raleigh's  designation,  it  still  and  for  some  years  longer 
continued  to  be  called.  The  consent  of  Raleigh,  which 
his  patent  right  was  thought  to  make  necessary,  Avas 
promptly  given.  The  sum  of  a  thousand  pounds  sterling 
was  raised  by  several  of  the  civic  governors  and  principal 
Voyage  of  mcrchauts  of  Bristol ;  and  under  the  command  of 
"g"o3"  Martin  Pring,  or  Prynne,  two  small  vessels,  one 

April  10.  q£  ^f^y  tons'  burden,  the  other  of  twenty-six  tons', 
with  a  crew  of  forty-four  men  and  boys,  sailed  from  Mil- 
ford  Haven  early  in  the  following  year,  the  first  year  of 
James  the  First.  They  were  provisioned  for  a  voyage  of 
eight  months ;  the  lading,  w^hich  consisted  of  clothes,  hard- 
ware, and  trinkets,  designed  to  procure  a  return  cargo  of 
sassafras,"  being  intrusted  to  Robert  Salterne,  who  had 
been  a  companion  of  Gosnold  in  the  preceding  year. 

Pring  approached  the  North-American  coast  between 
the  latitudes  of  forty-three  and  forty-four  degrees, 
and,  steering  to  the  southwest,  made  some  exam- 
ination about  the  mouths  of  the  Saco,  Kcnnebunk,  York, 
and  Piscataqua  rivers.      Not  finding  in   this  region   the 

^  There  was  a  family  taste  for  these  provement   upon,   Gilbert's   enterprise, 

studies  and  undcrtakinjrs.  "Mr. Richard  It   was   appended,   with   several  other 

Ilakluyt,   the  elder,  sometime  student  tracts  of  similar  purport,  to  the  second 

of  tlie  Middle  Temple,"  hail  written,  as  edition  of  Brereton's  letter  to  Raleigh, 
early  as  1.58.5,  a  treatise  entitled  "In-         2  Sassafras  was  In  great  esteem  for 

dueements  to  the  T>iking  of  the  Voyage  its  medicinal  virtue,  being  supposed  to 

intended  towards  Virginia  in  40  and  42  be  a  powerful  diuretic,  besides  possess- 

Degrees  of  Latitude."     This  must  have  ing  other  useful  properties. 
had  reference  to  a  renewal  of,  and  im- 


CiiAP.  II.]  EARLY   VOYAGES   AND   EXPLORATIONS.  75 

commodity  of  which  he  was  in  quest,  and  seeing  "  goodly 
groves  and  woods,  and  sundry  sorts  of  beasts,"  but  "no 
people,"^  he  turned  his  course  first  to  Savage  Rock, 
where  Gosnold  had  had  his  first  interview  with  na- 
tives the  year  before,  and  then  to  the  islands  south  of 
Cape  Cod,  where  he  found  convenient  anchorage  in  a 
harbor  which  appears  to  have  been  that  of  Edgartown  in 
Martha's  Vineyard.  The  natives  here  being  numerous,  he 
built  a  hut  with  rude  defences,  and  proceeded  to  collect 
his  lading  in  the  woods.  The  diminution  of  his  force,  by 
the  departure  of  the  smaller  vessel  when  her  cargo  was 
made  up,  was  followed  by  some  threatening  demonstra- 
tions on  the  part  of  the  Indians,  which  induced    .     „ 

i  Aug.  9. 

him  to  hasten  his  embarkation ;  and  he  arrived 

Oct.  2. 

at  Bristol  in  early  autumn,  after  a  passage  of 
seven  or  eight  weeks,  and  an  absence  from  England  of 
less  than  six  months.  Some  specimens,  carried  home  by 
him,  of  the  ingenious  manufacture  of  the  natives,  among 
others  a  birch  canoe  seventeen  feet  long,  helped  to  sustain 
the  curiosity  which  had  been  awakened  respecting  this 
strange  race  of  men." 

The  peace  with  Spain,  which  immediately  followed  the 
accession  of  King  James  to  the  throne  of  England,  made 
the  seas  more  secure  for  English  voyagers.  Pring's  ad- 
venture had  been  only  for  discovery  and  traffic,  with  no 
design  of  settlement.  Meanwhile  Lord  Southampton  had 
not  lost  sight  of  the  larger  scheme  which  Gosnold  had 
failed  to  carry  out.  At  a  charge  shared  between  him  and 
his  brother-in-law.  Lord  Arundel  of  Wardour,  a  voyage  of 
vessel  with  a  crew  of  twenty-eight  men,  under  ^cos""""* 
the  command  of  George  Waymouth;''  who  had  ^^arciisi. 


1  Belknap  suggests  that  the  reason  2  Por  Pring's  voyage  see  Purchas, 

of  this  was,  that  Pring  was  here  at  the  IV.  1654  et  seq. 

season  when  the  natives  were  absent  at  ■^  James  Rosier,  "  a  gentleman  em- 

their    fishing    stations    up   the   rivers,  ployed  in  the  voyage,"  wrote  "  A  True 

(Amer.  Biog.,  II.  126.)  Relation  "  of  it,   extracts   from   which 


76 


HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 


[Book  I. 


May  14. 


been  on  the  coast  twelve  years  before,  was  despatched 
from  the  Thames,  ostensibly  perhaps  for  the  discovery  of 
the  long-sought  Northwestern  Passage.^  A  six  weeks' 
voyage  brought  Waymouth  in  sight  of  the  island 
of  Nantucket.  Shifting  his  course  to  the  north, 
he  entered  the  Kennebec  or  the  Penobscot  E-iver,"  and,  in 
a  shallop  "  brought,  in  pieces,  out  of  England,"  ascended 
it  to  a  distance  of  "  not  much  less  than  threescore  miles." 
He  kidnapped  and  carried  away  five  of  the  natives.^ 
Except  for  this,  and  for  some  addition  to  the  knowledge 
of  the  local  geography,  the  voyage  was  fruitless.     But  the 


■were  published  by  Purchas  (Pilgrims, 
IV.  1G59).  The  whole  tract  is  in  the 
Collections  of  the  IMassachusetts  Histor- 
ical Society  (XXVUI.  125). 

1  So  says  Belknap  (Amer.  Biog.,  II. 
135),  and  after  him  the  exact  Holmes. 
Yet  I  have  not  observed  their  authority 
for  the  statement.  If  this  design  was 
professed,  it  was  probably  but  a  precau- 
tion against  the  jealousy  of  the  French, 
whose  hope  of  an  occupation  of  the 
country  began  now  to  be  disclosed. 
This  jealousy  is  cautiously  referred  to 
in  Hosier's  Preface.  He  had  delaj'cd, 
he  says,  to  publish  the  journal  which 
Lord  Wardour  liad  employed  him  to 
make,  "because  some  foreign  nation, 
being  fully  assured  of  the  fruitfulness 
of  the  coimtry,  have  hoped  hereby  to 

gain  some  knowledge  of  the  place ; 

and  this  is  the  cause  that  I  have  neither 
written  of  the  latitude  or  variation  most 
exactly  observed  by  our  captain  with 
sundry  instruments."  The  true  purpose 
of  the  voyage,  as  Rosier  understood  it, 
is  manifest  elsewhere  :  "  Because  we 
found  the  land  a  place  answerable  to 
the  intent  of  our  discovery,  namely,  fit 
for  any  nation  to  inhaliit,  we  used  the 
people  with  as  great  kindness  as  we 
could  devise,  or  found  them  capable 
of."  (Ma.ss.  Hist.  Coll.,  XXVIII.  1.38.) 
*'  We  supposing  not  a  little  jjrcsent 
private   profit,  but  a  pulilic  good   and 


true  zeal  of  promulgating  God's  holy 
Church  by  planting  Christianity,  to  be 
the  sole  intent  of  the  honorable  set- 
ters forth  of  this  discovery,"  &c.  (Ibid., 
153.) 

2  It  was  the  Penobscot,  according  to 
that  interpretation  of  the  journal  of  the 
voyage  which  has  been  approved  in  this 
country  since  Belknap  wrote.  But 
Strachey  (150)  understood  the  river  to 
be  the  Sagadahoc,  or  Kennebec,  and 
this  opinion  has  recently  been  revived. 
(McKeen,  in  Maine  Hist.  Coll.,  V., 
Art.  4.)  The  Kennebec  agrees  best 
with  AVajmouth's  observation  of  the 
latitude.  I  may  add,  that  the  subse- 
quent choice  of  the  Kennebec  by  Gorges 
and  his  friends,  as  the  site  of  a  plantta- 
tion,  affords  a  presumption  on  this  side, 
so  much  of  the  information  u])on  which 
they  proceeded  having  been  derived 
from  Waymouth. 

3  "  I  opened  the  box  and  showed 
them  trifles  to  exchange,  thinking 
thereby  to  have  banished  fear  from 
the  other,  and  drawn  him  to  return ; 
but  when  we  could  not,  we  used  little 
delay,  but  suddenly  laid  hands  upon 
them  ;  and  it  was  as  much  as  five  or  six 
of  us  could  do  to  get  them  into  the  light 
horseman  [the  boat],  for  they  were 
strong,  and  so  naked  as  our  best  hold 
was  by  their  long  hair  on  their  heads." 
(Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  XXVHI.  145.) 


Chap.  II.]  EARLY   VOYAGES   AND   EXPLORATIONS.  77 

beauty  and  convenience  of  the  river  had  enchanted  the 
strangers.  "  Many  who  had  been  travellers  in  sundry 
countries  and  in  the  most  famous  rivers,  yet  affirmed  them 
to  be  not  comparable  to  this  they  noAv  beheld."  It  seemed 
"  the  most  rich,  beautiful,  large,  and  secure  harboring 
river  that  the  world  affordeth."  Though,  by  such  of 
them  as  had  made  personal  observation,  the  Orinoco,  the 
Rio  Grande,  the  Loire,  and  the  Seine  were  allowed  to  be 
"  great  and  goodly  rivers,"  yet  it  was  "  no  detraction  from 
them  to  be  accounted  inferior  to  this."  After  a  stay  of 
less  than  five  weeks,  they  left  the  coast,  and  a    , 

'  •'  '  June  16. 

voyage  of  the  same  length  brought  them  to  Dart- 
mouth, where  they  had  set  sail  from  England. 

Meantime,  New  England  was  in  imminent  danger  of 
passing  into  the  hands  of  French  masters.    While  ^^^  ^^^^^ 
the  discovery  by  Cabot  was  the  basis  of  the  claim  ^""'"^^  °=- 

•^        "^  _  cupation  of 

of  England  to  the  possession  of  North- American  NewEng- 
territory,    the   voyage  of  Verazzano   was    relied 
upon  as   establishing   a  similar  title  for   her   hereditary 
rival  on  the  other  side  of  the  Channel.     A  conspicuous 
member  of  the  Protestant  party  of  France,  the     jcos. 
Sieur  de  Monts,  had  obtained  from  King  Plenry   ^"''•^* 
the  Fourth  a  patent  for  the  principality  of  Acadie,  defined 
as  the  American  coast  from  the  fortieth  to  the  forty-sixth 
degree  of  north  latitude,  with  provisions  for  the  govern- 
ment of  the  country  and  the  control  of  trade  within  those 
limits.^     Setting  sail  in  the  following  spring  with     1C04. 
four  vessels,  having  Pontgrave  and  De  Poutrin-   '*'''«''■'• 
court  for  his  lieutenants  and  Champlain  for  his  pilot,^  De 
INIonts  made  some  explorations  in  and  about  Nova  Scotia, 
in  the  course  of  which  he  examined  an  inviting  harbor  of 
the  Bay  of  Fundy,  on  the  north  side  of  that  peninsula ; 

1  Hazard  (I.  45)  reprints  the  patent         2  Charlevoix,  Histoire  et  Description 
from  L'Escarbot  (Histoire  de  la  Nou-     Ge'nerale   de   la  Nouvelle   France,   I. 
velle  France,  432).    L'Escarbot,  a  law-     173,174. 
yer,  went  out  with  De  Poutrincourt  as 
his  man  of  business. 

7* 


78  HISTORY   OF  NEW   ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

the  same  jDOst  wliicli,  under  French  and  English  sway, 

has  borne  at  different  times  the  names  of  Port  Royal  and 

Annapolis.     Dissatisfied  with  the  rigorous  climate  of  that 

re"^ion,  he  embarked  the  next  summer  for  an  ex- 

1C05. 

amination  of  the  shores  of  Maine  and  Massachu- 
setts, and  was  upon  that  coast  nearly  at  the  same  time 
with  Wavmouth.^     He  proceeded  as  far  as  Cape  Cod,  but 
the  unfriendly  disposition  of  the  natives  and  the  inade- 
quacy of  his  force  combined  to  discourage  him  from  a 
further  prosecution  of  the  undertaking.     In  the  ensuing 
year,  after  his  return  to  France,  it  was  renewed  by  his  com- 
panions.    Pontgrave,  following  in  his  track,  lost 
a  vessel  by  shipwreck,  and   scarcely  saved  her 
men  and  stores.     De  Poutrincourt  went  later,  and 
sent  a  party  on  shore  at  Cape  Cod  to  erect  a 
cross  and  take  possession  in  the  name  of  his  sovereign.^ 
The  savages  attacked  his  men,  killed  two,  and  wounded 
others.     Bad  weather,  now  coming  on,  obstructed  further 
movements,  and  made  his  situation  dangerous ;  the  French 
returned  to  Port  Royal,  and  the  enterprise  was  not  re- 
sumed.    New  England  was  to  be  impressed  with  the  his- 
tory of  another  family  of  men. 

Yet  another  fruitless  attempt  to  establish  a  colony  in 
that  country  was  made  on  a  large  scale.  Among  the 
persons  engaged  in  it.  Sir  John  Popham,  Chief  Justice  of 
the  King's  Bench,  was  the  most  considerable,  and  Sir 
Ferdinando  Gorges  among  the  most  active. 

Little  is  known  of  Gorges  previous  to  the  time  when 
Sir  Fcrdinan-  that  agcucy  of  his  began,  which  has  made  his 
doGorues.     nauic    SO    prominent    in   New-England    history. 


^  Probably  "Waymouth  had  loft  the  and   Chaniplain  was  the  extremity  of 

neighborhood  a  week  or  two  before  De  Cape  Cod,  where  now  is  Provincetown. 

Monts  came  to  it.  Malabar  appears  to  have  been  Nauset 

2  L'Escarbot,    Liv.    IV.    Chap.    7  ;  Harbor,  and   Cap  Fortune   the   south- 

Chaniplain,    Voyages,    Liv.    II.   chap,  easterly  point  of  Chatham. 
C,  7.     The   Cap  Blanc  of  L'Escarbot 


Chap.  H.]  EARLY   VOYAGES  AND   EXPLORATIONS.  79 

His  birthplace,  or  at  least  his  home,  was  in  Somersetshire.^ 
His  Italian  baptismal  name  is  no  sign  of  a  foreign  extrac- 
tion. It  had  somehow  come  to  be  much  used  in  England 
in  those  times.^  Gorges,  or  Gorge,  was  the  name  of  an 
old  family  in  the  West  Country.  In  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury, Eleanor,  daughter  and  heiress  of  Ralph  de  Gor- 
ges, married  Sir  Theobald  Russell.  Their  eldest  son, 
the  ancestor  of  Sir  Ferdinando,  took  the  name  of  his 
mother's  family,  and  it  is  from  a  younger  son  that  the 
ducal  house  of  Bedford  is  descended.  Sir  Ferdinando 
had  probably  some  connection  by  marriage  with  both 
Popham  and  Raleigh.^ 

Of  the  little  which  is  recorded  of  the  early  life  of  Gor- 
ges, not  all  is  to  his  credit.  He  was  a  partner 
in  the  conspiracy  of  the  Earl  of  Essex,  then  con- 
veyed intelligence  of  it  to  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  and,  on  the 
Earl's  trial,  testified  against  him.  The  consequences  of 
this  proceeding  followed  Gorges,  as  well  as  Raleigh,  to 
his  latest  hour.  They  had  frequent  occasion  for  favor  in 
whatever  quarter  it  could  be  had,  but  the  popular  leaning 
was  always  against  them.  For  the  English  people  found 
a  strange  fascination  in  Essex,  and  never  forgave  any 
who  had  harmed  him  except  the  queen,  who,  they  be- 


1  "  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges  of  Ashton  from  the  first  discovery  down  to  tlie 
Phillips  in  Somerset  "  (Josselyn,  Voy-  civil  war;  memoirs,  journals  of  voy- 
age, &c.,  p.  197.)  Few  things  would  be  ages,  charts,  charters,  minutes  of  argii- 
more  gladly  welcomed  by  the  student  ments,  letters,  sketches  of  jjrojects,  lists 
of  New-England  history  than  the  dis-  of  partners,  —  everything  to  illustrate 
covery  of  the  papers  of  Gorges,  which  the  events  and  their  causes,  and  to  dis- 
it  is  not  extravagant  to  suppose  may,  play  the  actors. 

undreamed   of  by   their  possessor,   be         2  gji.  Ferdinando  Fairfax  is  a  familiar 

now  feeding  the  moth  in  the  garret  of  instance ;   but  the  instances  were   fre- 

some  manor-house  in  Somerset  or  Dev-  quent. 

on,  or  in  some  crypt  of  London,  which  3  Raleigh's  mother  was  of  the  Devon- 
vast  city  has  always  been  the  recep-  shire  familj'  of  Champernowne.  Pop- 
tacle,  often  the  final  hiding-place,  of  ham's  daughter  married  one  of  that 
such  treasures.  Gorges  had  among  name,  and  the  Champernowne  who 
his  papers  all  sorts  of  materials  for  came  to  Sagadahoc  was  a  nephew  of 
the  history  of  English  North  America,  Gorges  (Hazard,  I.  458). 


80  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

lieved,  at  heart  loved  him  with  an  affection  beyond  their 
own. 

Gorges  served  in  the  royal  navy  during  the  war  with 
Spain.  At  the  peace,  the  king  made  him  Gover- 
nor of  Plymouth.  Here  he  was  living  the  listless 
life  of  an  officer  in  garrison,  when  Waymouth  returned 
from  his  voyage  to  North  America.  The  active  mind  of 
Gorges  now  found  an  object  which  occupied  it  nearly  to 
the  end  of  his  days.  With  his  uncommon  talent  for  busi- 
ness and  indefatigable  love  of  labor,  he  would  hardly 
have  failed  to  find  a  sphere  of  activity  at  home,  had  he 
not  been  obstructed  by  the  bad  repute  of  those  trans- 
actions which  have  been  referred  to.  The  soldiers  and 
seamen  of  the  late  war  had  liberty  to  take  service  abroad ; 
but  Gorges  was  one  of  those  who  "  thought  it  better  be- 
came them  to  put  in  practice  the  reviving  recollection  of 
those  free  spirits  that  rather  chose  to  spend  themselves 
in  seeking  a  new  world,  than  servilely  to  be  hired  but  as 
slaughterers  in  the  quarrels  of  strangers.  This  resolution 
being  stronger  than  their  means  to  put  it  into  execution, 
they  were  forced  to  let  it  rest  as  a  dream,  till  God  should 
give  the  means  to  stir  up  the  inclination  of  such  a  power 
able  to  bring  it  to  life." 

Means  were  not  easily  forthcoming  to  Gorges,  for  Puri- 
tanism had  a  special  fondness  for  Lord  Essex,  and  the 
money-bags  of  the  city  were  in  Puritan  keeping.  When 
1G05.  Waymouth  brought  to  Plymouth  his  Indian  cap- 
•'"'^-  tives,  he  inspired  the  Governor  with  the  hope  of 
enlisting  for  his  darling  scheme  allies  more  able  to  pro- 
mote it.  "  This  accident,"  Gorges  says,  was  "  the  means 
under  God  of  putting  on  foot  and  giving  life  to  all  our 
plantations."  He  took  three  of  the  natives  into  his  house, 
caused  them  to  be  instructed  in  the  English  language,  and 
"  kept  them  full  three  years."  By  degrees  he  obtained  in- 
formation from  them  of  the  "  stately  islands  and  safe  har- 
bors" of  their  native  country,  "what  great  rivers  ran  up 


tion  of  the 

jinia 
companies. 


Chap.  II.]         EARLY  VOYAGES  AND  EXPLORATIONS.  81 

into  the  land,  what  men  of  note  were  seated  on  them, 
what  power  they  were  of,  how  allied,  what  enemies  they 
had,  and  the  like."^ 

His  representations  to  Sir  John  Popham^  engaged  that 
eminent  person  to  exert  his  influence  with  his  friends  in 
high  quarters  to  obtain  authority  for  a  renewal  of  opera- 
tions in  North  America.  At  the  same  time  with  this  move- 
ment in  the  West  of  England,  "  certain  noble-  incorpora- 
men,  knights,  gentlemen,  and  merchants  in  and  y'lrgi' 
about  the  city  of  London"  were  desiring  to  renew 
the  attempts  which  had  been  abortively  made  under  the 
auspices  of  Raleigh  in  Virginia.  A  joint  application  was 
easily  arranged,  and  they  obtained  from  the  king  jeoe. 
an  incorporation  of  two  companies,  called  respec-  ^p"'  ^°' 
tively  in  the  patent  the  First  and  the  Second  Colony.^ 
The  suit  was  facilitated  at  court  by  considerations  of  the 
expediency  of  finding  harmless  employment  for  the  nu- 
merous active  spirits  left  at  leisure  by  the  recent  peace. 

Both  companies  were  to  be  under  the  supervision  of  a 
body,  called  the  Council  of  Virginia,  consisting  of  thirteen 
members,  appointed  from  time  to  time  by  the  crown,  and 
exercising  their  authority  agreeably  to  royal  instructions. 

1  "  Briefe  Narration  of  the  Original  their  affairs,  all  his  partners  and  assigns 
Undertakings,"  &c.,  in  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  may  have  voluntarily  come  into  the  new 
XXVI.  50,  51.  scheme,  or  have  surrendered  their  rights 

2  Popham  had  been  released  by  Gor-  under  the  old.  Possibly,  with  a  freedom 
ges  when  placed  in  hjs  custody  by  Es-  too  common  in  these  prerogative  trans- 
sex  at  the  time  of  that  nobleman's  mad  actions,  that  clause  in  Raleigh's  patent 
attempt  upon  London.  (Hume,  A.  D.  (Hazard,  I.  36)  which  gives  a  power  of 
1601.)  government  to  such  of  his  assigns  as 

3  The  instrument  is  in  Hazard,  I.  50.  should  become  inhabitants  within  six 
In  justification  of  this  grant,  it  is  common  years,  may  have  received  a  violent  con- 
to  say  (as  in  Holmes,  Annals,  I.  122)  struction,  such  as  to  make  it  mean  that 
that  Raleigh's  rights  had  been  forfeited  the  patent  had  conveyed  no  title  except 
by  his  attainder.  But  Raleigh  had  made  to  such  lands  as  should  be  discovered 
an  assignment  of  them,  or  at  least  ad-  and  possessed  within  that  time.  On  that 
mitted  others  to  a  partnership,  in  1589  construction,  the  rights  which  Raleigh 
(the  grant  is  in  Hazard,  I.  42),  and  his  and  his  assigns  had  obtained  by  posses- 
subsequent  attainder  could  not  vacate  sion  had  been  long  lost  by  non-user, 
the  rights  thus  conveyed.  It  is  not  im-  Virginia  had  been  abandoned  nearly 
probable  that,  in  the  desperate  state  of  twenty  years. 


82  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

Each  colony  was  in  like  manner  to  be  governed  for  the 
king,  and  agreeably  to  his  ordinances,  by  a  council  of  his 
appointment,  residing  on  the  spot.  To  the  First,  or  Lon- 
don Colony,  -was  assigned  the  territory  of  South  Virginia, 
extending  from  the  thirty-fourth  to  the  forty-first  degree 
of  north  latitude,  with  a  breadth  of  fifty  miles  inland. 
The  Second,  or  Plymouth  Colony,  under  the  management 
of  "  sundry  knights,  gentlemen,  and  other  adventurers,  of 
the  cities  of  Bristol  and  Exeter,  and  of  the  town  of  Ply- 
mouth, and  of  other  places,"  was  to  plant  in  North  Vir- 
ginia, anywhere  within  the  same  distance  from  the  shore, 
and  between  the  thirty-eighth  and  the  forty-fifth  parallels 
of  latitude.  To  prevent  mterference  as  to  the  territory 
granted  to  both  alike,  it  was  provided  that  neither  com- 
pany should  make  a  settlement  within  a  hundred  miles 
of  land  previously  occupied  by  the  other.  Colonists  and 
their  descendants  were  to  have  all  the  rights  of  British 
subjects.  The  companies  might  expel  intruders,  coin 
money,  impose  taxes  and  duties  for  their  own  use  for 
twenty-one  years,  and,  for  seven  years,  import  goods  from 
other  parts  of  the  British  dominions,  free  of  duty.  On 
the  other  hand,  they  were  held  to  pay  into  the  royal  treas- 
ury twenty  per  centum  of  the  products  of  gold  and  silver 
mines  which  might  be  discovered,  and  from  copper  mines 
one  third  of  that  rate.  Neither  the  name  of  Gorges, 
nor  that  of  Sir  John  Popham,  appears  among  the  paten- 
tees. Hakluyt  was  one  of  the  persons  incorporated  in  the 
London  Company.  Of  the  Plymouth  Company,  George 
Popham,  brother  of  the  Chief  Justice,  and  Raleigh  Gil- 
bert, son  of  the  earlier  navigator  and  nephew  of  Sir  Wal- 
ter Paleigh,  were  original  associates. 

A  vessel  despatched  from  Bristol  by  Sir  John  Popham 
made  a  further  survey  of  the  coast  of  New  England,  and 
returned  with  accounts  which  infused  vigorous  life  into 
the  undertaking;^  and  it  was  now  prosecuted  with  eager- 

1  "  Captain  Prin brings  with  him  the  most  exact  discovery  of  that 


Chap.  II.]         EAKLT  VOYAGES  AND  EXPLORATIONS. 


83 


ness  and  liberality.     But  in  little  more  than  a  year  "  all 
its  former  hopes  were  frozen  to  death."     Three     jgo?. 
ships  sailed  from  Plymouth  with  a  hundred  set-    '^^y  hi- 
tlers, amply  furnished,  and  taking  two  of  Gorges's  Indians 
as  interpreters  and  guides.      After  a  prosperous  voyage 
they  reached  the  mouth  of  the  river  called  Saga-    a„„  g 
dahoc,  or  Kennebec,  in  Maine,  and  on  a  project-  A^'^mpted 

'  ^  i:       J  settlement 

ing  point  ^  proceeded  to  organize  their  commu- 
nity. After  prayers  and  a  sermon,  they  listened 
to  a  reading  of  the  patent  and  of  the  ordinances  under 
which  it  had  been  decreed  by  the  authorities  at  home  that 
they  should  live.  George  Popham  had  been  constituted 
their  President,  Haleigh  Gilbert  was  Admiral,  and  Har- 
low, Robert  Davis,  Best,  Scammon,  James  Davis,  and 
Carew  were  invested  respectively  with  the  trusts  of  Mas- 


on the  Ken- 
nebec. 


coast  that  ever  came  to  my  hands  since ; 
and  indeed  he  was  the  best  able  to  per- 
form it  of  any  I  met  withal  to  this  pres- 
ent, which,  with  his  relation  of  the 
country,  wrought  such  an  impression 
in  the  Lord  Chief  Justice,  and  us  all 
that  were  his  associates,  that,  notwith- 
standing our  first  disaster,  we  set  up 
our  resolutions  to  follow  it  with  effect." 
(Gorges,  Briefe  Narration,  in  Mass. 
Hist.  Coll.,  XXVI.  53.)  This  "first 
disaster  "  was  the  capture  by  the  Span- 
ish of  an  exploring  ship  which  had  been 
sent  out  by  Gorges,  as  Prin's  was  by 
Popham.  In  the  State  Paper  Office,  in 
a  parcel  entitled  "  America  and  AVest 
Indies,  459,"  there  is  a  letter  of  Gorges 
to  his  captain,  whose  name  was  Cha- 
lons, in  which  (March  13,  1607)  he 
advises  him  not  to  be  hasty  in  accept- 
ing satisfaction  for  losses  in  his  recent 
voyage  (comp.  Belknap,  I.  349),  assur- 
ing him  that  he  will  do  better  to  wait. 
I  understand  Popham's  captain  to  have 
been  the  navigator  who  had  been  in 
New  England  three  years  before.  Pur- 
chas  (V.  1827)  and  Harris  (Voyages,  I. 
851)    say  that  Thomas  Hanham  com- 


manded Popham's  vessel,  and  that  Mar- 
tin Prinn  sailed  with  him.  Hanham 
was  one  of  the  Plymouth  Company, 
named  in  the  patent.  Later  writers 
speak  of  a  Captain  Prynne.  Gorges's 
authority  is  the  best,  though  his  differ- 
ent spelling  may  be  thought  to  leave 
some  question  respecting  the  identity 
of  Prin.  Strachey  (163)  seems  to 
have  been  ill  informed  resj^ecting  these 
transactions. 

1  Probably  Cape  Small  Point,  in  what 
is  now  the  town  of  Phippsburg  (Fol- 
som,  Discourse,  in  1846,  before  the 
Maine  Historical  Society,  28).  "At 
the  mouth  of  Sagadahoc,  in  a  westerly 
peninsula,"  says  Purcbas  (I.  939),  who 
published  in  1616.  It  has  been  sup- 
posed (Williamson,  History  of  Maine, 
I.  198),  but  without  sufficient  evidence, 
that  the  adventurers  disembarked  on 
Stage  Island,  and  subsequently  re- 
moved to  the  mainland  before  winter. 
On  Stage  Island,  in  1778,  Sullivan 
(History  of  Maine,  1 70)  saw  what  he 
thought  to  be  ancient  cellars  and  wells, 
and  the  remains  of  a  fort  and  of  chim- 
neys of  English  bricks. 


84  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

tcr  of  the  Ordnance,  Commander  of  the  Forces,  Marshal, 
Secretary,  Governor  of  the  Fort,  and  Revenue  Officer. 
Lilliput  had  its  type  hi  the  stately  littleness  of  Fort  St. 
George. 

The  adventurers  dug  wells,  and  built  huts.  More  than 
half  of  the  number  became  discouraged,  and  returned  with 
the  ships  to  England.  Forty-five  remained  through  the 
winter,  which  proved  to  be  very  long  and  severe.  In 
the  midst  of  it  their  storehouse  took  fire,  and  was  con- 
sumed, with  great  part  of  the  provisions.  And  when  the 
President  sickened  and  died,  and,  presently  after,  a  vessel 
despatched  to  them  with  supplies  brought  intelligence  of 
the  death  of  Sir  John  Popham,  and  of  Sir  John  Gilbert, 
—  the  latter  event  calling  for  the  presence  of  the  Admiral, 
Gilbert's  brother  and  heir,  in  England,  —  they  were  ready 
to  avail  themselves  of  the  excuses  thus  afi'orded  for  re- 
treating from  the  distasteful  enterprise.  All  yielded  to 
their  homesickness,  and  embarked  on  board  of  the  return- 
ing ship,  taking  with  them  a  small  vessel  which  they  had 
built,  and  some  furs  and  other  products  of  the  country. 
Statesmen,  merchants,  and  soldiers  had  not  learned  the 
conditions  of  a  settlement  in  New  England.^ 

"  The  country  was  branded  by  the  return  of  the  planta- 
tion, as  being  over  cold,  and  in  respect  of  that  not  habit- 
able by  Englishmen."  Still  the  son  of  the  Chief  Justice, 
"  Sir  Francis  Popham,  could  not  so  give  it  over,  but  con- 
tinued to  send  thither  several  years  after,  in  hope  of  better 
fortunes,  but  found  it  fruitless,  and  was  necessitated  at 

1  Of  Popham 's  colonists  Sir  William  never  satisfaction."  Strachey  (History 
Alexander  says  (]\Iap  and  Description  of  Travaile,  1(52-180)  has  a  detailed 
of  New  England,  p.  30),  that  they  journal  —  the  only  one,  I  suppose,  in 
were  easily  discouraged,  because  they  existence  —  of  the  transactions  of  this 
"  went  thither,  being  pressed  to  the  en-  colony.  That  part  which  is  subject  to 
terprlse,  as  endangered  by  the  law  or  a  comparison  with  other  authorities  con- 
by  their  own  necessities,  no  enforced  tains  some  manifest  inaccuracies.  But 
thing  proving  pleasant;  discontented  they  relate  to  transactions  previous  to 
persons  sufTcring  whileas  they  act,  they  the  sailing  of  the  fleet, 
can    seldom   have    good   success,    and 


Chap.  IL]  EARLY   VOYAGES  AND   EXPLORATIONS.  85 

last  to  sit  clown  with  the  loss  he  had  ah'eady  undergone.'* 
Sir  Francis  Popham's  enterprises  were  merely  commercial. 
Gorges  alone,  "  not  doubting  but  God  would  effect  that 
which  man  despaired  of,"  persevered  in  cherishing  the 
project  of  a  colony.  Chance  having  thrown  in  his  way 
a  native  who  had  been  kidnapped  from  Martha's  Vine- 
yard, and  "  been  shown  in  London  for  a  wonder,"  igi4, 
he  sent  him  out  in  a  trading-vessel  as  another  "'""®- 
medium  of  communication.  The  savage,  who,  to  secure 
his  return,  had  told  seductive  stories  of  a  gold  mine  which 
he  could  point  out,  no  sooner  touched  the  shore  than  he 
absconded,  though  Gorges  had  given  strict  orders  that  he 
should  be  closely  watched,  beside  "  clothing  him  with 
long  garments  fitly  to  be  laid  hold  on,  if  occasion  should 
require."  ^ 

The  coast  still  remained  open  to  the  occupation  of  Eng- 
lishmen, Henry  Hudson  had  visited  it  in  the  Hudson's 
service  of  the  Dutch  East  India  Company ;  but 
though  he  landed  on  Cape  Cod,  it  had  not  de- 
tained him  from  his  explorations  in  Delaware  Bay  and 
the  river  which  bears  his  name.  A  party  of  The  French 
French,  who  had  intrenched  themselves  on  Mount  °\"r/®' 

'  nobscot. 

Desert,  near   the  mouth  of  the  Penobscot,  had,     ^''is. 

after  a  few  weeks'  occupancy,  been  dislodged  by  Argal,,^  ^4^^*'*^ 

Governor  of  Virginia,  on  a  chance  visit  of  his  to  that 

neighborhood. 

Meanwhile,  by   strange   experiences  in  other  parts  of 
the  world,  an  extraordinary  man  had  been  pre-  captain 
paring  himself  for  co-operation  with  Gorges  ;  and 
a  movement  was  made   towards   New  England   not  less 
energetic  than  any  that  has  been  described,  though  des- 
tined  to   scarcely   better   fortune.      John    Smith     j^u. 
sailed  from  London  for  this  coast  with  two  ships,    ^p"'  ^• 
fitted  out  by  some  private  adventurers. 

The  history  of  Smith   is   of  that   description   that   its 

1  Gorges,  Briefe  Narration,  &c.,  in  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  XXYL  5C,  GO. 

VOL.  I.  8 


visit. 

1G09. 
August. 


86  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

place  would  seem  to  be  rather  among  the  legends  of  a 
mythical  age,  than   m   the  annals  of  the  prosaic  seven- 
teenth century.     He  was  of  a  good  family  in   Lincoln- 
shire.    His  father's  death,  when  he  was  thirteen 

1592. 

years  old,  left  him  competently  provided  for,  and 
at  the  same  time  interrupted  a  plan  which  he  had  medi- 
tated. "  His  mind  being  even  then  set  upon  brave  adven- 
tures," he  had  "  sold  his  satchel,  books,  and  all  he  had, 
intending  secretly  to  get  to  sea."  His  guardians  appren- 
ticed him  to  a  merchant,  from  whose  service  he  soon 
found  his  way  to  France ;  his  friends  "  liberally  gave  him, 
but  out  of  his  own  estate,  ten  shillings  to  be  rid  of  him." 

An  English  neighbor  fell  in  with  him  at  Orleans,  and 
furnished  him  with  money  for  his  journey  home.  But 
he  had  another  use  for  it ;  and,  going  to  Holland,  he  took 
service  in  the  Netherlands  army.  After  three  or  four 
years  thus  disposed  of,  he  returned  to  Willoughby,  his 
native  place,  and,  "  being  glutted  with  too  much  com- 
pany, wherein  he  took  small  delight,  he  retired  himself 
into  a  little  woodland  pasture,  a  good  way  from  any  town, 
environed  with  many  hundred  acres  of  other  woods.  Here 
by  a  fair  brook  he  built  a  pavilion  of  boughs,  where  only 
in  his  clothes  he  lay,"  and  employed  himself  in  studying 
the  science  of  war,  and  practising  military  exercises. 

His  next  appearance  in  public  was  in  some  connection, 

which  he  does  not  explain,  with  Tattersall's  in  London, 

to  which  establishment  he  was  attracted  by  his  passion 

for  horses.     "  Desirous  to  sec  more  of  the  world,  and  to 

try  his  fortune  a<::ainst  the  Turks,"  he  bent  his 

Smitli's  ad-  •'  &  _  '  _ 

ventures  in  coursc  towards  the  Imperial  camp,  which  he 
found  before  the  fortress  of  Lymbach  in  Hun- 
gary. On  the  way,  he  had  met  with  various  adventures. 
He  had  been  robbed  of  all  his  effects  by  his  companions 
on  the  passage  to  France.  "  In  a  forest,  near  dead  with 
grief  and  cold,"  he  had  been  found  and  relieved  by  a 
peasant.     lie  had  refilled  his  empty  purse  by  a  share  in 


Chap,  n.]        EARLY  VOYAGES  AND  EXPLORATIONS.  87 

the  prize-money  of  a  rich  Venetian  argosy  captured  by 
the  French  vessel  in  which  he  had  embarked  from  Mar- 
seilles for  the  Levant.  He  had  hardly  saved  his  life  by 
swimming  to  an  island,  after  being  thrown  into  the  Medi- 
terranean by  a  company  of  pilgrims  whom  he  had  joined, 
and  who  attributed  a  storm  which  had  overtaken  them 
to  their  having  received  a  heretic  on  board. 

Arrived  at  the  army,  Smith  speedily  recommended  him- 
self by  the  ingenious  management  of  a  telegraph,^  estab- 
lishing a  communication  with  the  garrison  which  there 
was  an  endeavor  to  relieve.  Next  he  invented  two  or 
three  new  sorts  of  fireworks,  one  of  them  called  "  fiery 
dragons,"  which  did  good  execution.  Lymbach  was  re- 
lieved, the  Turks  withdrew,  and  Smith  was  made  a  cap- 
tain of  horse. 

The  belligerent  hosts  being  intrenched  opposite  to 
each  other,  three  Turkish  champions,  "  to  delight  the 
ladies,"  successively  challenged  some  cavalier  of  the  Chris- 
tian army  to  mortal  combat.  The  adventure  fell  by  lot  to 
Smith,  w4io  encountered  them  one  after  another,  and  cut 
off"  their  heads.  Made  prisoner  by  a  Tartar  prince,  with 
many  of  his  countrymen,  after  a  bloody  battle,  he  was 
sold  in  a  slave-market  near  Adrianople.  A  Pacha  bought 
him  for  his  mistress,  "  the  young  Charatza  Tragabigzan- 
da."  Taking  compassion  on  him,  and  fearing  that  he 
might  be  sold  out  of  her  reach,  she  sent  him  for  g^ith  i^ 
safe-keeping  to  her  brother  in  a  fortress  by  the  ^^'^' 
Black  Sea.  A  letter  bespeaking  for  him  indulgent  treat- 
ment produced  the  opposite  eff"ect.  The  Pacha  suspected 
his  sister  of  a  tenderer  sentiment  than  pity,  and  wreaked 
his  displeasure  on  the  captive.  "  He  caused  his  drub- 
man  to  strip  him  naked,  and  shave  his  head  and  beard 
so  bare  as  his  hand,  a  great  ring  of  iron,  with  a  long 

1  Smith's  method  was  hardly  an  in-  is  the  same  as  that  described  in  the 
vention.  He  was  probably  indebted  fragment  of  the  tenth  book  of  Polybius 
for  it  to  his  early  classical  reading.     It     (cap.  43-47). 


88  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

stalk  bowed  like  a  sickle,  riveted  about  his  neck,  and 
a  coat  made  of  Ulgries  hair,  guarded  about  with  a  piece 
of  an  undressed  skin.  There  were  many  more  Christian 
slaves,  and  near  an  hnndved  forgados  of  Turks  and  Moors, 
and  he,  being  the  last,  was  slave  of  slaves  to  them  all. 
Among  these  slavish  fortunes  there  was  no  great  choice ; 
for  the  best  was  so  bad,  a  dog  could  hardly  have  lived  to 
endure,  and  yet,  for  all  their  j)ains  and  labors,  no  more 
regarded  than  a  beast." 

Smith  was  not  a  man  to  despair  in  the  worst  of  times. 
Day  by  day  he  performed  his  task,  took  his  beatings, 
made  his  observations,  and  mused  on  the  means  of  escape. 
"  All  the  hope  he  had  ever  to  be  delivered  from  his  thraL 
dom  was  only  the  love  of  Tragabigzanda."  But  "God 
beyond  man's  expectation  or  imagination  helpeth  his  ser- 
vants, when  they  least  think  of  help,  as  it  happened  to 
him."  Profiting  by  the  opportunity  of  an  unwitnessed 
interview,  "  he  beat  out  the  Tymor's  brains  with  his 
threshing-bat,  for  they  have  no  flails,  and,  seeing  his  es- 
tate could  be  no  worse  than  it  was,  clothed  himself  in  his 
clothes,  hid  his  body  under  the  straw,  tilled  his  knaj)sack 
with  corn,  shut  the  doors,  mounted  his  horse,  and  ran 
into  the  desert  at  all  adventure,  two  or  three  days  thus 
fearfully  wandering  he  knew  not  whither.  And  well  it 
was  he  met  not  any  to  ask  the  way,  being  even  as  taking 
leave  of  this  miserable  world.  God  did  direct  him  to 
the  great  way  of  Castragan,  as  they  call  it,  which  doth 
cross  these  large  territories." 

He  got  back  among  Christians,  and  indulged  his  ruling 
passion  by  long  wanderings  in  Russia,  Poland,  the  Aus- 
trian and  other  German  states,  France,  and  Spain. 
"  Being  thus  satisfied  with  Europe  and  Asia,  understand- 
smitii  in  ii'ig  of  the  wars  in  Barbary,  he  went  from  Gibral- 
Africa.  ^^j^.  ^Q  Guta  [Couta]  and  Tangier."  Here  he 
acted  the  part  of  only  a  peaceable  traveller,  being  disin- 
clined to  take  his  usual  stirring  part  in  affairs,  "  by  reason 


Chap.  II.]         EARLY  VOYAGES  AND  EXPLORATIONS. 


89 


of  the  uncertainty,  and  the  perfidious,  treacherous,  bloody 
murders,  rather  than  war,  amongst  those  perfidious,  bar- 
barous Moors."  While  his  further  plans  were  unde- 
cided, he  made  a  visit  on  board  of  an  English  man-of- 
war  in  the  harbor  of  SafFee  in  Morocco.  Its  hospitality 
detained  him  into  the  evening,  when  a  storm  arose,  which 
made  it  necessary  to  slip  the  anchors  and  put  to  sea,  and 
did  not  cease  till  the  ship  was  miles  away  upon  the  At- 
lantic. After  a  short  absence,  enlivened  by  a  desperate 
engagement  with  two  Spanish  ships  of  war,  the  vessel  re- 
turned to  her  port,  and  Smith  soon  sailed  for  England.^ 


1  The  True  Travels,  Adventures, 
and  Observations  of  Captain  John 
Smith,  Chap.  I.  -  XX.  —  I  presume  I 
am  not  the  first  reader  "who  has  been 
haunted  by  incredulity  respecting  some 
of  the  adventures  of  Smith.  How  far 
we  have  his  own  authority  for  state- 
ments printed  under  his  name,  is  a 
point  remaining  to  be  ascertained.  I 
was  not  able  to  learn  in  England  that 
any  autograph  of  his  is  in  existence. 
Of  course  this  is  not  a  decisive  fact  as 
to  his  having  been  a  writer,  for  almost 
the  same  thing  could  be  said  of  Shake- 
speare. But  hack-writers  abounded  in 
London  at  the  time.  Smith  was  just 
such  a  person  as,  for  the  salableness  of 
his  narratives,  would  naturally  fall  into 
their  hands,  and  into  the  hands  of  their 
masters,  the  booksellers.  They  would 
be  disposed  to  give  large  room  to  the 
element  of  the  marvellous  in  his  stories; 
and  how  strictly  they  would  confine 
themselves  to  his  representations  would 
partly  depend  on  the  degree  of  control 
which  he  could  exert  over  them,  and 
the  degree  of  responsibility  wliich  he 
felt  for  the  veracity  of  what  they  pub- 
lished. That  he  was  not  himself  proof 
against  a  traveller's  temptation  to  ex- 
aggerate, is  rendered  but  too  probable 
by  the  engravings  which  illustrate  his 
books,  and  which  it  is  natural  to  suppose 
must,  if  anything,  have  passed  under  his 
8* 


eye.  Among  their  other  remarkable 
representations,  tho.se  which  exhibit  him 
as  taking  the  kings  of  Pamunkee  and 
Paspahagh  prisoners  with  his  own  arm 
show  those  monarchs  as  taller  than  him- 
self by  more  than  a  head.  He  seizes 
the  giants  by  their  long  hair,  which  he 
is  scarcely  able  to  reach. 

The  subscriptions  to  some  of  the 
tracts,  "  J.  S."  and  "  John  Smith  writ 
this  with  his  own  hand"  (General  His- 
torie  of  Virginia,  &c.,  39,  248,  et  al.), 
are  no  more  likely  to  be  his  own  cer- 
tificate of  authorship  than  an  artifice  of 
book-making.  Nor  can  much  more  credit 
be  claimed  for  such  a  statement  as  that 
in  which  Smith,  or  the  writer  who  per- 
sonates him,  says,  "  We  spent  our  time 
about  the  isles  of  the  Azores,  where,  to 
keep  my  perplexed  thoughts  from  too 
much  meditation  on  ray  miserable  es- 
tate, I  writ  this  discourse,  thinking  to 
have  sent  it  to  you  of  his  Llajesty's 
Council  by  some  ship  or  other."  (Ibid., 
224.)  Dedications  are  more  trustwor- 
thy declarations.  According  to  the 
Dedication  (to  the  Earl  of  Pembroke)  of 
the  "  True  Travels,  Adventures,  and 
Observations  of  Captain  John  Smith," 
it  was  he  himself  who  "  compiled  this 
true  discourse,"  and  "  envy  had  taxed  " 
him  "  to  have  writ  too  nuieh  and  done 
too  little  "  ;  and  the  Dedication  of  the 
"  General   History   of   Virginia,    New 


90 


HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 


[Book  I. 


A  fugitive  slave  was  to  be  the  founder  of  Virginia. 


At 


the  time  of  Smith's  return  to  his  native  country,  the  inter- 
est excited  by  the  recent  voyage  of  Gosnold,  and  by  other 


England,  and  the  Summer  Isles"  to 
"  the  Illustrious  and  most  noble  Prin- 
cess, the  Lady  Finances,  Duchess  of 
Richmond  and  Lenox,"  is  full  to  the 
same  effect. 

In  part  the  treatises  brought  together 
in  Smith's  volumes  are  professed]}'  ac- 
counts of  the  voyages  of  other  persons, 
related  in  their  own  words,  and  inserted 
bodily  into  the  narrative  without  notice 
of  a  transition.  After  stating,  for  in- 
stance, the  occasion  of  the  voyage  of 
Amidas  and  Barlow,  when  Smith  was 
but  five  years  old,  he,  or  the  compiler 
who  represents  him,  presently  proceeds 
without  notice  to  transcribe  their  jour- 
nal, "  We  passed  by  the  sea-side,"  &c., 
and  so  to  the  end.  (Generall  Ilistorie, 
2.)  The  same  course  is  pursued  with 
Grenville's  voyage  the  year  after  (Ibid., 
5),  and  with  various  others.  Frequent- 
ly at  the  close  of  a  narrative  is  given 
the  name  of  its  author,  as,  "  Written 
by  Mr.  lialph  Lane,  Governor"  (Ibid., 
9) ;  "  Written  by  Thomas  Ileriot,  one 
of  the  Voyage"  (Ibid.,  12);  "Written 
by  blaster  John  AVhite"  (Ibid.,  10); 
''  Written  by  John  Brereton "  (Ibid., 
18);  "Written  by  James  Rosier"  (Ibid., 
20),  &c.  The  third  book  of  the  Gen- 
erall Historic,  though  a  narrative  of  pro- 
ceedings in  which  Smith  was  a  prom- 
inent actor,  and,  in  great  part,  of  his 
personal  adventures,  professes  (Ibid., 
41)  to  have  been  compiled  by  "  William 
Simons,  Doctor  of  Divinity."  The 
fourth  book  (Ibid.,  105)  embodies  the 
"  examinations "  of  the  same  person. 
The  fifth  book,  on  the  Bermudas,  in- 
corporates tlio  relations  of  dilU'rcnt 
writers.  The  sixth  book  relates  to 
New  England,  and  here,  appended  to 
the  narrative  of  Smith's  own  observa- 
tions and  transactions,  is  an  abstract 
(Ibid.,  231  et  .sew.)  from  the  journals  of 


Bradford  and  Winslow,  as  published  in 
London  in  1622,  in  ]\Iourt's  Relation. 
The  progress  of  things  in  New  England 
is  recorded  (Ibid.,  247)  in  a  brief  sketch 
down  to  the  year  1624.  And  a  later 
work,  "  Advertizements  for  the  Unex- 
perienced Planters  of  New  England," 
continues  the  narrative  to  1630,  the 
year  of  the  emigration,  under  Win- 
throp,  of  "  a  great  company  of  people 
of  good  rank,  zeal,  means,  and  quality." 
A  comparison  of  Smith's  narrative 
with  the  authentic  history  of  the  South- 
east of  Europe  leads  to  conclusions  on  the 
whole  favorable  to  its  credit.  The  route 
from  Capo  d'  Istria  on  the  Adriatic,  by 
"  Lubbiano"  (Laybach)  and  "  Grates" 
(Gratz),  to  Vienna,  is  correctly  de- 
scribed. (True  Travels,  &c.,  Chap.  III.) 
Smith  enhsted  in  the  regiment  of  Henry 
Volda,  Count  of  Meldi'i,  whom  he  calls  a 
Transylvanian,  and  who  was  probably  a 
Wallachian.  Kanisa  was  surrendered  to 
the  Turks  on  the  20th  of  October,  1600 ; 
and,  as  Smith  went  immediately  after  to 
the  army  (Ibid.,  Chap.  IV.)  which  was 
engaged  in  the  attempt  to  relieve  "  Olum- 
pagh"(Lymbach,on  the  Mur),thc  time  of 
the  commencement  of  his  service  is  ascer- 
tained to  have  been  early  in  November 
of  that  year.  The  time  of  the  siege  and 
battle  of"  Stowlle-Wescnburg  "  (Stuhl- 
"Weissenburg)  Avas  from  September  9  to 
October  15,1601.  Smith's  description  of 
them  (Ibid.,  Chap.  V.)  is  entirely  accord- 
ant with  history.  The  author  says  that 
the  Earl  of  "Rosworme"  (Ilussworm) 
found  "  means  to  surprise  the  Segeth  and 
suburb  of  the  city."  Now  the  key  of  the 
j)osition  was  an  island  under  the  town, 
on  which  one  of  its  suburbs  was  built ; 
and  szif/rf  is  the  Hungarian  word  for 
island,  a  fact  wliich  Smith,  hearing  in 
the  camp  about  the  importance  of  szi- 
get,  did  not  know.     Here  is  a  strong 


Chap.  II.]  EAllLY   VOYAGES   AND   EXPLORATIONS. 


91 


causes,   was   taking  form   in  the  application  for  „. 

"-"  ^  _    *■  ^  His  coiinec- 

the  patent  of  the  Council  for  Virginia,  and  in  the  »''^"  with 

„  ,  .  ,         .  .  1    ■    1       ^'^®  London 

arrangements   lor  American  colonization  which  company. 


indication  that  the  narrator  was  an  eye- 
witness, ignorant  of  the  Hungarian  lan- 
guage. 

"  Duke  Mercury  "  is  Philip  Emanuel 
of  Lorraine,  Due  de  Mercceur,  who 
figures  in  French  history  in  the  time  of 
Henry  the  Fourth  (Sully,  Memoires, 
LIv.  XL,  Xn.).  After  the  raising  of 
the  siege  of  Kanisa,  November  18, 1601, 
a  perplexity  occurs  in  the  narrative. 
Smith,  enlisted  in  the  regiment  of  Mel- 
dri,  is  in  the  service  of  the  Emperor 
Rudolph,  king  of  Hungary,  in  a  war 
against  the  Turks.  But  suddenly  he 
re-appears  as  a  soldier  of  Prince  Sigis- 
mund  Bathory  of  Transylvania,  the 
enemy  of  the  Emperor,  and  the  ally  of 
Turks  and  Tartars.  Smith  says  (Ibid., 
Chap.  VI.)  that  Meldri  was  sent  with 
his  regiment  to  Transylvania,  to  re- 
inforce the  imperial  general,  George 
"  Busca"  (Basta)  ;  but  the  Count,  being 
a  Transylvanian  (Ibid.,  Cap.  VII.),  per- 
suaded his  troops  to  "assist  the  Prince" 
(Sigismund  Bathory,  the  Emperor's 
enemy)  "  against  the  Turks "  (with 
whom  he  was  at  peace),  "  rather  than 
Busca"  (the  imperial  general,  Basta) 
"  against  the  Prince."  The  truth  is, 
that  ]\Ieldri  went  over  with  his  merce- 
naries from  the  Emperor  to  the  Prince, 
and  was  made  his  Quartermaster-Gen- 
eral ;  and,  while  in  fact  the  Count  was 
in  the  service  of  the  ally  and  tool  of 
the  Turks  against  the  Emperor,  either 
Smith  or  his  editor  appears  to  wish  to 
have  it  appear  that  he  continued  to 
fight  the  Turks,  unless  we  prefer  to 
tliink  that  Smith's  editor  merely  blun- 
dered, from  ignorance  of  the  relations 
of  the  subject. 

The  Transylvanian  names  which  oc- 
cur in  the  narrative  cannot  be  so  well 
identified  as  the  Hungarian.  By  the 
land  of  Zarkam,  "  where  there  were 


some  Turks,  some  Tartars,  but  most 
bandittoes,  renegadoes,  and  such  hke," 
(Ibid.,)  is  probably  to  be  understood  the 
Zeckler-land,  one  of  the  three  divisions 
of  Transylvania,  the  Magyar-land  and 
the  Sachsenland  being  the  others.  Of 
the  names  of  the  three  champions  killed 
by  Smith  (Ibid.),  only  the  first  is  Turk- 
ish. The  other  two  sound  as  if  Walla- 
chian. 

The  subsequent  events,  the  submis- 
sion of  Prince  Sigismund  to  the  Em- 
peror, and  the  overthrow  of  INIoj-ses 
Tzekely,  are  correctly  related  (Ibid., 
Chap.  VIII.) ,  and  it  is  highly  probable 
that  (Ibid.,  Chap.  X.)  Basta  sent  the 
treacherous  regiment  against  the  Wai- 
lachians  beyond  the  Carpathian  range, 
to  take  their  chance  of  being  cut  up  or 
of  conquering  the  country. 

Some  chronological  statements  raise 
a  doubt.  Count  Meldri  went  to  Tran- 
sylvania In  November,  1601.  Prince 
Sigismund  concluded  the  armistice  with 
Basta,  the  Emperor's  general,  i\Iarch  1, 
1602.  Thus  Smith's  narrative  com- 
presses the  siege  of  Regal  and  the  ad- 
ventures in  Zarkam  into  three  or  four 
winter  months,  at  a  period  when  win- 
ter campaigns  were  rarely  undertaken. 
Perhaps,  however,  instead  of  the  date 
of  SIgismund's  armistice,  we  should 
assume  that  of  his  fonnal  abdication, 
which  did  not  take  place  till  the  1st 
of  July,  down  to  which  time  Tzekely, 
and  Meldri  under  him,  might  have  been 
making  war  against  the  loyalists,  not- 
withstanding the  truce. 

There  is  a  similar  scant  allowance  of 
time  for  Smith's  captivity  and  wander- 
ings. The  battle  at  "  Rottenton"  (Ro- 
then  Thurm),  where,  south  of  Herman- 
stadt,  the  capital  of  the  Saxon-land,  is 
the  pass  into  Wallachia,  took  place  No- 
vember 18, 1C02.     In  that  action  Smith 


92 


HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 


[Book  I. 


were  presently  made  by  the  London  and  the  Plymouth 
Companies.     Smith,   then  twenty-seven  years  old,   sailed 

1(300.  with  the  first  squadron  despatched  by  the  Lon- 
Dec.  19.  (.|q^  Company,  in  whose  service  his  genius  and 
heroism  won  for  him  a  name  eminent  in  the  catalogue  of 
the  founders  and  benefactors  of  states.  His  history  for 
the  next  three  years  is  the  history  of  the  establishment  of 
the  Ancient  Do7ninion. 

AVhen  he  came  again  to  America,  it  was  to  a  more 
northerly    latitude.       Pie    claims    to    have    then 

Ills  voyage  '' 

to  New  Eng-  "  brouglit  Ncw  Euglaud  to  the  subjection  of  the 
kingdom  of  Great  Dritain."  ^    If  this  is  too  strong 


is  related  to  have  been  taken  prison- 
er. (Ibid.,  Chap.  XI.)  On  the  9th  of 
December,  1C03,  he  was  at  "Lipswick" 
(Lobkortz)  with  Prince  Sigismund,  who 
then  and  there  (though  no  longer  a  sov- 
ereign) is  said  to  have  given  him  a  pass- 
port, and  a  coat  of  arms  (to  be  seen  in 
Smidi's  book)  which  quartered  the  lilies 
of  France.  In  this  last  period  of  less  than 
thirteen  months,  he  had  been  sold  near 
Adrianople,  and  sent  to  Constantinople, 
and  thence  by  the  straits  of  Kertsch 
and  Theodosia  to  a  hold  of  the  Tartars 
on  the  Don.  After  passing  some  time 
there  in  servitude,  he  had  escaped,  and 
travelled  through  Southern  Russia,  ^lol- 
davia,  Transylvania,  "  high  Hungary 
by  Filcck  [which  docs  not  lie  in  the 
way],  Toi'ka  [Tokay],  Cassovia,  and 
Unduoroway  [Unter  Arva],  by  Ulrnicht 
[Olmiitz]  in  Moravia,  to  Prague  in  Bo- 
hemia." (Ibid.,  Chap.  XL,  XII.,  XVII.) 
So  long  a  journey  within  the  time 
specified  cannot  bo  called  impossible. 
But  it  argues  marvellous  despatch. 
Many  of  the  names  can  be  identified, 
both  in  Turkey  and  in  the  Crimea. 

On  the  whole,  the  reader  perhaps  in- 
clines to  tlie  opinion  tliat  John  Siuitli 
was  not  the  sole  author  of  his  books, 
but  that  they  passed,  for  embellishment 
at   least,    through    the    hands   of  sonic 


craftsman,  who  was  not  perfectly  pos- 
sessed either  of  Smitli's  own  story,  or  of 
the  geography  or  public  history  to  which 
it  related. 

1  "  Now  to  conclude  the  travels  and 
adventures  of  Captain  Smith,  how  first 
he  planted  Virginia,  and  was  set  ashore 
Avith  about  an  hundred  men  in  the  wild 
woods ;  how  he  was  taken  prisoner  by 
the  savages,  by  the  king  of  Pamaunke 
tied  to  a  tree  to  be  shot  to  death,  led  up 
and  down  their  country  to  be  shewed 
for  a  wonder ;  fatted,  as  he  thought, 
for  a  sacrifice  for  their  Idol,  before 
whom  they  conjured  him  three  days 
with  strange  dances  and  invocations, 
then  brought  him  before  their  Emperor 
Powhatan,  that  commanded  him  to  be 
slain ;  how  his  daughter  Pocahontas 
saved  his  life,  returned  him  to  James- 
town, relieved  him  and  his  famished 
company,  which  was  but  eight  and 
thirty  to  possess  those  large  dominions; 
how  he  discovered  all  the  several  na- 
tions upon  the  rivers  falling  into  the 
Bay  of  Cliisapeacke ;  stung  near  to 
death  with  a  most  poisoned  tail  of  a 
fish  called  stingray;  how  Powhatan  out 
of  his  country  took  the  kings  of  Pa- 
maunke and  Paspahagh  ])riso)iers,  forced 
thirty-nine  of  those  kings  to  pay  him 
contribution,  subjected  all  the  savages; 


Chap.  II.]  EARLY   VOYAGES   AND   EXPLORATIONS.  93 

a  statement  of  the  success  of  his  endeavors  to  that  end, 
at  all  events  they  were  of  extreme  importance.  While  his 
ambition  contemplated  no  less  than  the  ultimate  founding 
of  a  colony,  the  object  of  the  partners  with  whom  he  had 
engaged  for  a  voyage,  after  the  relinquishment  of  his  con- 
nection with  the  London  patentees,  was,  he  says,  "to  take 
whales,  and  also  to  make  trials  of  a  mine  of  gold  and 
copper."  In  the  last  resort,  a  freight  of  fish  and  furs 
was  relied  upon  to  defray  the  expenses  of  the 
undertaking.  Sailing  with  two  ships  from  the  March  3. 
Downs,  he  made  the  land  at  Monhegan,  an  Apriiso. 
island  lying  twenty  miles  southwest  from  the  mouth  of 
the  Penobscot,  and  already  a  rendezvous  for  fishermen. 
Not  meeting  with  success  in  the  search  for  whales.  Smith, 
with  eight  men  in  a  small  boat,  left  the  ships  and  the 
rest  of  the  party  to  be  employed  in  fishing,  while  he 
ranged  the  neighboring  coast  to  the  southwest  in  quest 
of  furs.  He  availed  himself  of  the  opportunity  to  "  draw 
a  map  from  point  to  point,  isle  to  isle,  and  harbor  to  har- 
bor, with  the  soundings,  sands,  rocks,  and  landmarks " ;  ^ 
and  he  was  the  first  to  give  to  the  country  the  name  of 
New  England^  in  the  place  of  North  Virginia^  by  which 
name  it  had  hitherto  been  known.  While  he  was  absent 
on  this  survey.  Hunt,  the  master  of  one  of  the  vessels, 
kidnapped  a  number  of  the  savages,  whom  he  carried  to 
Spain  and  sold  as  slaves.^ 

liow  Smith  was  blown  up  with  gunpow-  his  men  drowned,  when  God,  to  whom 
der,  and  returned  for  England  to  be  be  all  honor  and  praise,  brought  him 
cured ;  also  how  he  brought  our  new  Eng-  safe  on  shore  to  all  their  admirations  that 
land  to  the  subjection  of  the  kingdom  escaped ;  you  may  read  at  large  in  his 
of  Great  Britain ;  his  fights  with  the  Pi-  general  history  of  Virginia,  the  Sum- 
rates,  left  alone  amongst  a  many  French  mer  lies,  and  New  England."  (True 
men  of  War,  and  his  ship  ran  from  Travels,  &c.,  58.) 
him ;  his  sea-fights  for  the  French  against  ^  Generall  Historic,  207. 
the  Spaniards  ;  their  bad  usage  of  him ;  ^  "  One  Thomas  Hunt,  the  master  of 
how  in  France  in  a  little  boat  he  escaped  this  ship  (when  I  was  gone),  thinking 
them;  Avas  adrift  all  such  a  stormy  night  to  prevent  that  intent  I  had  to  make 
at  sea  by  himself,  when  thirteen  French  there  a  plantation,  thereby  to  keep  this 
ships  were  split,  or  driven  on  shore  by  abounding  country  still  in  obscurity, 
the  He  of  llee,  the  general  and  most  of  that  only  he  and  some  few  uierchanta 


94  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

On  his  return  to  England,  Smith  was  permitted  to  pre- 
iiis  later  Sent  a  copy  of  his  map  and  of  a  journal  of  his 
enterprises,  yoyage  to  the  Iviug's  second  son,  afterwards  King 
Charles  the  First,  who,  at  his  solicitation,  gave  names, 
principally  of  English  towns,  to  some  thirty  points  upon 
the  coast.^  The  map  was  published,  with  the  names 
attached.  Only  those  of  Plymouth,  Charles  River,  and 
Cape  Ann  have  permanently  adhered  to  the  objects  they 
were  thus  selected  to  designate.  The  names  of  Boston, 
Hull,  Cambridge,  and  some  others,  were  subsequently 
adopted,  but  in  connection  with  different  localities  from 
those  to  which  Prince  Charles  had  affixed  them. 

Arriving  at  Plymouth,  Smith  was  immediately  ap- 
proached by  Gorges,  who  engaged  him  in  the 
service  of  the  Plymouth  Company.  To  this  ser- 
vice, though  solicited  again  by  the  London  Company,  he 
adhered,  on  the  plea  that  he  was  pledged ;  a  considera- 
tion which  was  probably  enforced  by  his  sense  of  the  ill- 
treatment  he  had  received  from  the  latter  body  in  respect 
to  his  proceedings  in  Virginia,  though  he  generously  or 
prudently  abstained  from  crimination.- 

"  Much  labor,"  he  says,  "  I  had  taken  to  bring  the 
Londoners  and  them  to  join  together,  because  the  Lon- 
doners have  most  money,  and  the  Western  men  are  most 
proper  for  fishing; yet  by  no  means  I  could  pre- 

morc  might  enjoy  -wholly  the  benefit  of  roducod    scale,    of   that   published    by 

the  trade  and  profit  of  this  country,  be-  Smith  in  the  first  edition  of  his  De- 

trayed  four  and  twenty  of  those  poor  scription  of  New  England  (161C). 

savages  aboard  his  ship,  and  most  dis-  2  u  j  f^^^  g^\\\   j^^y  refusal  incurred 

honestly  and  inhumanly,  for  their  kind  some  of  their  displeasures,  whose  love 

usage  of  me  and  all  our  men,  carried    and  favor  I  exceedingly  desired 

them  with  him  to  Maligo,  and  there  for  It  is  their  error,  not  my  fault,  that  occa- 
a  little  private  gain  sold  those  silly  sav-  sions  their  dislike,  for,  having  engaged 
ages  for  rials  of  eight."  (Generall  His-  myself  in  this  business  in  the  West 
torie,  205.)  According  to  Mourt's  Country,  I  had  been  very  dishonest  to 
Relation  (SS),  Hunt's  captives  were  have  broken  my  promise,  nor  will  I 
twenty  from  IMyinouth  and  seven  from  spend  more  time  in  diseovc^ry  or  fish- 
Cape  Cf)d.  ing,  till  I  may  go  with  a  company  for  a 
1  (lenerall  llistorie,  205.  The  a<'-  plantation.  For  I  know  my  grounds." 
coiJipanyirig  m.ip  is  a  fac-similo,  on  a  (Ibid.,  20f!.) 


N£WENC 

^jJU    molt   rtjaar^ucai'lt  varti  ti 


C^jCktp:  are  thclMltZ  ihttjhtof  tfer  TaUiliii  ^iiff: 


I 


1^  -■■^■^  I , 


\\'(TPK 


^!- 


En-glarLi,  9  4 


-ZTiA^^7-ap7t.aa^3y  Z.S.Srt2/£f^rcL . 


Chap.  II.]         EARLY   VOYAGES   AND   EXPLORATIONS.  95 

vail,  SO  desirous  they  were  both  to  be  lords  of  this  fish- 
ing."^     The  Plymouth  Company  remained  embarrassed 
and  discouraged  by  the  ill-success  of  their  undertaking 
seven  years  before ;  and  it  was  not  without  "  a  labyrinth 
of  trouble  "  that  he  was  enabled  to  set  sail  again     jgis. 
for  New  England  with  two  ships,  the  one  of  two     ^^"''''• 
hundred,  the  other  of  fifty  tons'  burden.     They  had  not 
proceeded   far  to   sea,  before  they  were  separated  in  a 
storm.     Captain  Dermer,  in  the  smaller  vessel,  proceeded 
on  his  voyage,  but  with  too  little  force  to   accomplish 
anything  beyond   obtaining  a  freight,  which  he 
brought    to     England    within    a    few    months. 
Smith's    ship    was    dismasted,    and,   returning  into    port, 
was  pronounced   unseaworthy.      Never   disheartened,  he 
set  sail  again  with  thirty  men  in  a  bark  of  sixty  tons, 
but  was  taken  by  a  French  squadron,  and  after  a  long 
cruise,  in  which  he  was  made  serviceable  by  his  captors 
in  engagements  with  Spaniards,  was. set  free  with  empty 
pockets  at  Rochelle. 

After  a  series  of  other  adventures  and  exploits,  such  as 
trod  in  each  other's  steps  from  first  to  last  of  his  strange 
career,  he  made  his  way  back  to  Plymouth,  and 

.  .  1G17. 

prepared  once  more  to  set  sail  with  three  vessels. 
But  adverse  winds  kept  him  in  port,   till  other  obsta- 
cles occurred,  and  the  expedition  never  put  to  sea.     Pie 
travelled  about  the  South  and  West  of  England,  distrib- 
uting books  and  maps,-  and  endeavoring  to  awaken  an 

1  General!  Historie,  221.  me  no  more  good  than  so  much  waste 

2  Ibid.,  220.  "  I  caused  two  or  three  paper,  though  they  cost  me  more.  It 
thousand  of  them  to  be  printed,  one  may  be  it  was  not  my  chance  to  see  the 
thousand  with  a  great  many  maps  both  best."     (Ibid.,  207.) 

of   Virginia    and    New   England."  —         I    have    not   made    diligent    search 

"  The  coast  [of  New  England]  is  yet  for  maps  delineating  the  New-England 

still  [1624]   but  even  as  a  coast  un-  coast,  of  an  earlier  date  than  that  of 

known  and  undiscovered.     I  have  had  Smith's  visit  to  it  in  IG 14.    Maps  which 

six  or  seven  several  plots  of  those  north-  I  have  seen  are  of  the  years  indicated 

ern  parts,  so  unlike  each  to  other,  or  as  follows :  — 
resemblance  of  the  country,  as  they  did         1500.     A  copy  of  the  map  of  John 


96 


mSTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 


[Book  L 


interest  in  his  darling  enterprise.  "A  great  many  maps" 
he  "  presented  to  thirty  of  the  chief  companies  in  Lon- 
don at  their  halls."     But  "  all  availed  no  more  than  to 


de  la  Cosa  of  this  year  was  published 
by  Humboldt  (Examen  Critique,  Tome 
V.)  from  the  original  in  the  collection 
of  the  late  Baron  Walckcnaer.  It  is  a 
delineation  of  the  eastern  coast  of  the 
American  continent,  and  exhibits  not 
ill  the  cliief  features  of  the  West-India 
Islands  and  the  Spanish  Main.  An 
incorrect  representation  of  a  country 
northwest  of  the  Azores  bears  the  name 
Mar  Discuhicrto  por  Ynglei^cs.  Such  as 
it  is,  it  denotes  New  England.  It  must 
have  been  derived  from  some  draft,  or 
perhaps  only  some  description,  of  the 
discoveries  of  the  Cabots. 

1520.  The  American  Antiquarian 
Society  has  Peter  Apian's  ]\Iap  of  the 
World  bearing  this  date,  and  professing 
to  be  made  after  the  representation  of 
the  cosmogra])her  Ptolemy,  and  the  ex- 
plorations of  Americus  Ycspucius  and 
others.  The  equator  and  the  parallels 
of  southern,  as  well  as  of  northern  lati- 
tude, are  represented  by  large  curves, 
convex  towards  the  south.  North  and 
South  America  are  divided  from  each 
other  by  a  strait,  and  North  America  is 
represented  as  not  a  tenth  part  as  large 
as  Africa.  This  map,  which  was  pub- 
lished by  Gamers  (the  Italian  Vellini) 
in  his  edition  of  Solinus,  is  that  in  which 
the  name  America  is  seen  for  the  first 
time.  (Le  Visconte  de  Santarem,  Ilc- 
cherches  sur  Amdric  Vespuce  et  ses 
Voyages,  109.) 

1529.  The  Spanish  map  of  Diego 
Ribero,  published  at  Weimar  in  1795. 
It  exhibits  the  eastern  coast  of  America, 
from  Labrador  to  Cape  Horn,  with  the 
portion  of  the  western  coast  extending 
ten  degrees  on  each  side  of  the  equator. 
I  am  indebted  for  a  sight  of  it  to  Dr. 
Kohl.  As  to  New  England  and  the 
parts  adjacent,  which  it  calls  the  Land 
of  Stephen  Gomez,  it  records  the  obser- 


vations of  that  navigator  (see  above,  p. 
C5).  Its  Cape  of  Marty  Islands  is  prob- 
ably Cape  Cod.  The  best  part  of  its 
delineation  in  this  region  is  the  part 
between  that  cape  and  Hudson  River. 

1554.  Francisco  Lopez  de  Gomara's 
"  Historia  General  de  las  Indias  "  (Ant- 
werp, 16mo)  contains  a  rude  chart  of 
both  coasts  of  South  America,  and  of 
the  eastern  coast  of  North  America. 
It  is  on  a  small  scale,  and  inaccurate ; 
tolerably  good  as  to  South  America,  of 
no  value  for  New  England. 

15G0.  A  map  of  the  world  published 
at  Venice,  in  which  the  outlines  of 
North  and  South  America  are  well 
drawn.  America,  Europe,  and  Africa 
occupy  the  centre  of  the  sheet ;  about 
three  quarters  of  Asia  being  rejiresented 
on  the  right  side,  and  one  quarter  on 
the  left. 

15CG.  A  Venetian  map  of  North 
America,  of  inferior  correctness  and 
execution.  The  two  maps  last  men- 
tioned are  in  the  Brilit^h  Museum. 

1675.  The  map  of  the  New  World, 
published  by  Ortellus  in  this  year,  and 
repeated  in  the  later  editions  of  his 
book,  exhibits  no  indications  of  im- 
proved knowledge  as  to  New  England. 

1577-80.  The  Dutch  map  of  J. 
Ilondius  was  compiled  to  illustrate 
Drake's  voyage  in  these  years,  and 
C^avcndish's  voyage  in  1586  -  88.  The 
Ilakluyt  Society  republished  it  in  1854 
with  their  edition  of  Drake's  "  World 
Encompassed."  The  purpose  of  the 
map  did  not  direct  attention  to  the 
delineation  of  North  America,  and  no 
pains  were  bestowed  upon  it. 

1582.  Ilakluyt's  "  Divers  Voyages" 
contains  two  maps ;  one  engraved  from 
"  the  fonne  of  a  ]\Iappe  sent  1527  from 
Sivill  in  Spain  to  Dr.  Ley,"  ambassador 
from  Henry  the  Eighth  to  the  Spanish 


Chap.  II.]  EARLY   VOYAGES   AND   EXTLORATIONS. 


97 


hew  rocks  with  oyster-shells."^  The  suspense  attending 
the  fruitless  solicitation,  he  says,  "  was  to  me  a  greater 
toil  and  torment,  than  to  have  been  in  New  England 
about  my  business  with  bread  and  water,  and  what  I 
could  get  there  by  my  labor ;  but  in  conclusion,  seeing 
nothing  would  be  effected,  I  was  contented  as  well  with 
this  loss  of  time  and  charge  as  all  the  rest."^ 


court.  It  has  in  the  northwestern  cor- 
ner an  outline  of  a  coast,  drawn  by 
mere  guess,  with  the  note,  "  Terra  ha3C 
ab  Anglis  primum  fuit  inventa."  The 
other,  dedicated  to  Sir  Philip  Sidney 
by  Michael  Lok,  of  London,  was  partly 
made  up  from  "an  old  excellent  mappe" 
given  by  Verazzano  to  Henry  the 
Eighth,  and  in  the  year  of  Hakluyt's 
publication  was  "in  the  custody  of 
Master  Locke."  An  island  on  it,  called 
Norumbetja,  corresponds  to  New  Eng- 
land, but  the  resemblance  is  very  faint. 

1587.  Hakluyt's  edition  of  Peter  Mar- 
tyr's book  "  De  Orbe  Novo  "  (Paris)  con- 
tains a  map  of  North  and  South  America 
of  singular  beauty  and  finish  of  execu- 
tion, and  of  remarkable  correctness  for 
the  sraallness  of  the  scale.  There  are  two 
copies  of  the  book  in  the  British  IMu- 
seum.  The  map  is  in  the  copy  belong- 
ing to  the  Grenville  Collection.  A  note 
in  Mr.  Grenville's  handwriting  is,  "  I 
should  not  know  where  to  find  another 
copy  of  the  map." 

1589.  The  edition  of  Hakluyt's  Nav- 
igations, &c.  of  this  year  contains  a  map, 
very  well  executed,  of  the  western  and 
southern  coasts  of  the  old  continent,  of 
South  America,  of  the  eastern  coast  of 
North  America,  and  of  the  western 
coast  as  far  as  the  latitude  of  50  de- 
grees. In  respect  to  the  part  compre- 
hending what  is  now  the  United  States, 
it  is  less  correct  than  some  earlier  de- 
lineations. 

I  know  of  no  niap,including  New  Eng- 
land, published  between  1589  and  1G12, 
when  L'Escarbot  illustrated  his  History 
VOL.  I.  9 


with  a  delineation  of  New  France.  In 
1C13,  Champlain  prefixed  another  to  his 
"  Voyages."  Both  are  on  a  small  scale, 
and  indicate  a  very  rude  knowledge  of 
the  geography  of  the  region.  The  map 
published  by  Hondius,  also  in  1613, 
in  his  edition  of  Mercator's  Atlas,  is 
scarcely  anything  more  than  a  copy  of 
that  of  Ortelius.  Smith's  map  excels 
in  correctness  anything  of  the  kind  of 
earlier  date. 

1  Advertizements,  &c.,  25. 

2  Generall  Historic,  230.  —  Smith 
finds  a  place  for  taste  and  sentiment,  as 
well  as  for  love  of  profit,  among  the 
motives  with  which  he  plies  his  readers. 
"  Here  nature  and  liberty  affords  us  that 
freely  which  in  England  we  want,  or  it 
costeth  us  dearly.  What  pleasure  can 
be  more  than,  being  tired  with  any 
occasion  ashore,  in  the  planting  vines, 
fruits,  or  herbs,  in  contriving  their  own 
grounds  to  the  pleasure  of  their  own 
minds,  their  fields,  gardens,  orchards, 
buildings,  ships,  and  other  works,  &c., 
to  recreate  themselves  before  their  own 
doors  in  their  own  boats  upon  the  sea? 

"What  sport  doth  yield  a  more 

pleasing  content  than  angling  with  a 
hook,  and  crossing  the  sweet  air  from 
isle  to  isle,  over  the  silent  streams  of  a 
calm  sea,  wherein  the  most  curious  may 
find  profit,  pleasure,  and  content?" 
(Ibid.,  219.)  —  In  the  State  Paper  Of- 
fice ("America  and  West  Indies,"  441) 
is  a  MS.  copy  of  a  lettei-,  of  twelve  pages, 
from  John  Smith  to  Lord  Bacon,  which 
has  not  been  published,  so  far  as  I  know. 
According  to  a  memorandum  upon  it, 


1631. 
June  31. 


98  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  L 

Several  years  more  passed  before  his  death ;  but  it  does 
not  appear  that  his  designs  respecting  New  Eng- 
land were  ever  renewed,  though  his  later  publi- 
cations, after  he  learned  that  "  some  hundreds  of  Brown- 
ists"  had  gone  "to  New  Plymouth,  whose  humorous 
ignorances  caused  them  for  more  than  a  year  to  endure 
a  wonderful  deal  of  misery,  with  an  infinite  patience,"^ 
show  his  affection  to  it  to  haA'e  been  still  alive.  Smith 
valued  himself  on  being  "  not  so  simple  to  think  that 
ever  any  other  motive  than  wealth  will  ever  erect  there 
a  commonwealth,  or  draw  company  from  their  ease  and 
humors  at  home,  to  stay  in  New  England."^  In  this  case, 
more  simplicity  proved  to  be  superior  wisdom.  No  trading 
adventurers  were  so  capable  and  resolute  as  to  be  able  to 
plant  that  soil. 

"  Under  color  of  fishing  and  trade,"  the  indefatigable 
Gorges  sent  out  Richard  Vines  with  a  party,  to  make 
observations  on  the  country,  and  cultivate  acquaintance 
with  the  natives,  while  the  ship's  company  should  be 
engaged  in  collecting  a  cargo.  Vines  remained 
saco.  with  his  companions  at  a  camp  on  the  river  Saco, 

through  a  winter.^  One  important  piece  of  in- 
telligence was .  the  fruit  of  his  expedition.  A  great  part 
of  New  England  was  almost  depopulated   by   war  and 

it  was  "  written  in  1618."     Annexed  to  it  to  the  utmost  of  their  power  with  their 
it,  in  double  coUimns,  is  the  list  of  In-  purses.     And  I  shall  be  ready  to  spend 
dian  and  Enfjlish  names  of  places  in  both  life  and  goods  for  the  honor  of  my 
New  England,  which  had  been  printed  country  and   your  Lordship's   service, 
in  the  "  Description  of  New  England."  with  which  resolution  I  do  in  all  luimil- 
It  sets  forth  the  flattering  prospects  of  ity  rest,  at  your  Honor's  service,"  &c. 
that  country,  and  solicits  Lord  Bacon's         ^  True  Travels,  &c.,  46. 
approval.    "  Truth  is  more  than  wealth,         2  Generall  Historic,  &c.,  219. 
and  industrious  subjects  are  more  avail-        ■^  I  suppose  the  first  winter  of  Yines's 
able  to  a  king  than  gold."    "  Had  I  but  residence  in  Maine  to  have  been  that 
the  patronage  of  so  mature  a  judgment  of   lClG-17;    yet   it   is  singular   that 
as  your  Honor's,  it  would  not  only  in-  (Jorgcs    (Bricfe  Narration,  Chap.  X.) 
duce  those  to  believe  what  I  know  to  i)laccs  the  account  before  that  of  trans- 
be  true  in  this  matter,  who  will  now  actions   of   1C14   and    1G15.      (Comp. 
hardly  vouchsafe  the  perusal  of  my  re-  Chap.  XU.,  XUI.) 
lations,  but  also  be  a  means  to  further 


Chap.  II.]         EARLY   VOYAGES  AND  EXPLORATIONS.  99 

pestilence.  "  The  country  was  in  a  manner  left  void  of 
inhabitants."  It  was  afterwards  found  that  the  plague 
had  swept  from  Penobscot  River  to  Narragansett  Bay.^ 

"  This   course,"  says   Gorges,   "  I  held  some  years  to- 
gether, but  nothing  to  my  private  profit ;  for  what  I  got 
one  way  I  spent  another ;   so  that  I  began  to  grow  weary 
of  that  business,  as  not  for  my  turn  till  better  times."  ^ 
He  did  not  weary  of  it,  however,  but  continued  to  watch 
for  opportunities  of  better  promise.      Rocraft,   the  com- 
mander of  one  of  his  expeditions,  disobeying  his 
orders,  went  to  Virginia,  where  he  was  killed  in 
a  brawl,  and  his  vessel  was  shipwrecked.     The  voyage  of 
Dermer,  Smith's  former  associate,  who  was  to  have  joined 
Rocraft,  was  scarcely  more  prosperous.    It  has  an  interest 
from  the  fact  that,  returning  from  Virginia,  whither  he 
had  sailed  along  the  coast  from  the  Kennebec,  he  trav- 
ersed part  of  the  country  not  long  after  to  be  Dermer  at 
occupied  by  the  Colony  of  Plymouth.     He  was  ^'^leaT'* 
at  Nauset  on  Cape  Cod,^  where  he  had  an  encoun-     •'""^• 
ter  with  the  natives  ;  at  Namasket,  now  Middleborough, 
where  he  met  the  two  chiefs  of  the  Pokanoket  tribe,  after- 
wards well  known  to  the  Plymouth  colonists  ;  and  at  the 
spot  which  he  recognized  as   "  that  place  from  whence 
Squanto,    or   Tisquantum,    was    taken    away,    which    in 
Captain  Smith's  maj)  is  called  Plymouth,"  and  at  which 
Dermer  wished  "that  the  first  plantation  might  be  seated. 


1  What  was  the  nature  of  this  fright-  }'ellow  garment  they  showed  me),  both 
ful   epidemic   has   never    been    ascer-  before  they  died  and  afterwards."     It 
tained.     It  has  been  thought  to  have  was  reasonably  thought  extraordinary 
been  the  yellow  fever ;  but  this  opinion  at  the  time,  that  none  of  Vines's  corn- 
is  not  approved  by  the  medical  science  pany,  living  in  the  midst  of  the  sick- 
of   the   present   time.       Gookin,   who  ness,  were  attacked  by  it. 
wrote  in  1674,  and  who  places  the  sick-  2  Briefe  Narration,  &c..  Chap.  X. 
ness  in  1613  or  1G14,  says  (Mass.  flist.  3  The  name  Cape  Cod  is  equivocal, 
Coll.,  I.  148),  "  I  have  discoursed  with  being   used   for   the  whole   peninsula, 
some  old  Indians,  that  were  then  youths,  sixty   miles   long,   as   well   as   for   the 
who  say  that  the  bodies  all  over  were  headland  in  which  it  terminates, 
exceeding  yellow   (describing  it  by  a 


\ 


100  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  T. 

if  there  came  to  the  number  of  fifty  persons  or  upward."-^ 
The  expression  of  his  hope  preceded  its  fulfihnent  by 
only  five  months.  Dcrmer  noticed  the  ravages  of  the 
recent  pestilence.  "  I  passed  along  the  coast,  where  I 
found  some  ancient  plantations,  not  long  since  populous, 
now  utterly  void."  He  was  severely  wounded  in  a  skir-  | 
misli  with  the  Indians  of  Martha's  Vineyard,  and  soon 
afterwards  died  in  Virginia.- 

1  Letter  ofDermer,  of  June  30,  1C20,        2  Gorges,    Briefe     Narration,     &c., 
in  Deane's  Bradford,  96.  Chap.  XV. 


CHAPTER  III. 

A  RELIGIOUS  impulse  accomplished  what  commercial 
enterprise,  commanding  money  and  court  favor,  had  at- 
tempted without  success.  Civilized  New  England  is  the 
child  of  English  Puritanism. 

The  spirit  of  Puritanism  was  no  creation  of  the  six- 
teenth century.  It  is  as  old  as  the  truth  and  manliness 
of  England.  Among  the  thoughtful  and  earnest  island- 
ers the  dramatic  religion  of  the  Popes  had  never  struck 
so  deep  root  as  in  Continental  soil.^  They  had  been  co- 
erced into  unquestioning  conformity  as  often  as  the  state 
of  public  affairs  had  made  it  necessary  for  the  Crown  to 
court  the  Church ;  but  the  government  of  princes  strong 
in  the  goodness  of  their  title  and  in  the  popular  regard 
had  often  been  illustrated  by  manifestations  of  discontent 
with  the  spiritual  despotism  which  had  overspread  West- 
ern Europe. 

A  succession  of  Saxon  versions  of  the  Bible,  from  al- 
most the  beginning  of  the  Heptarchy  to  the  Nor-  Free  spirit 
man  Conquest,  attests  the  demand  of  the  times  for  Eng'li'sr''^ 
Scriptural  knowledge ;   and,  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  ^''"'■'^*'- 
ritual  of  the  Mass,  the  Gospel  and  the  Epistle  were  read 
in  the  vernacular  tongue."    Under  the  early  princes  of  the 

1  Hume  describes  England  as  "the  and  clergy  in   England,  and  between 

kingdom  which  of  all  others  had  long  the   English   clergy  and  the  court  of 

been  the  most  devoted  to  the  Holy  See."  Rome,    had   sufficiently   prepared    the 

(History,  Chap.  XXX.,  A.  D.  1532.)  nation  for  a  breach  with  the  Sovereign 

But  his  "long"  must  be  interpreted  of  Pontiif."   (Chap.  XXXI.,  A.  D.  1534.) 

the  time  which  began  with  the  Lancas-  2  Lingard,  Antiquities  of  the  Anglo- 

trian  dynasty.    Elsewhere  he  says,  that  Saxon  Church,  Chap.  VI.  §  2. — Sharon 

"  the  ancient  and  almost  uninterrupted  Turner,  History  of  the  Anglo-Scixons, 

opposition  of  interest  between  the  laity  Book  X.  Chap.  III. 
9* 


102  HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

Norman  line,  the  Church,  as  the  natural  ally  of  the  people 
against  their  lords,  easily  conciliated  the  popular  senti- 
ment to  an  acquiescence  in  its  claims.     But,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  occasional  contumacy  of  the  kings  in  their  rela- 
tions to  the  papal  power  laid  up  a  lesson  for  the  people's 
use  in  later  times  ;  while  cases  were  not  wanting  in  which 
English  ecclesiastics  themselves,  on  questions  of  the  priv- 
ileges of  their  order,   were  found  practising  a  doubtful 
submission  to  the  successor  of  St.  Peter.-^     William  the 
Conqueror  had  come  near  to  a  quarrel  with  the  Holy 
See,  when  he  forbade  his  bishops  to  obey  its  ci- 
tation to  Rome,  and  required  spiritual  causes  to 
be  tried  in  the  hundred  or  the  county  courts.     With  the 
right  on  his  side  and  the  good  wishes  of  his  people,  Henry 
the  Second  appeared  to  have  a  fair  prospect  of  ultimate 
success  in  his  struggle  with  the  clergy,  when  he  lost  his 
advantage  by  the  murder  of  the  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury.      The    progress    made    by   the   lay 
judges,  in  the  time  of  the  rash  but  feeble  Henry  the 
Third,  in  narrowing  the  jurisdiction  of  the  ecclesiastical 
tribunals,  emboldened  the  spirit  of  the  people,  while  it 
extended  their  legal  securities.     The  barons  of  Edward 
the  First  had  no  scruples  as  to  repelling,  in  the 
most  positive  language,  the  claim  of  supremacy 
set  up  at  Home  in  the  dispute  about  the  crown  of  Scot- 
land ;  ^    and   his    Statute   of  Mortmain   was   an  efficient 
measure  of  protection  against  priestly  and  monkish  cu- 
pidity. 

National  revolutions,  religious  or  political,  are  never 
sudden.  When  they  appear  to  have  been  so,  it  is  because 
the  agencies  that  had  been  preparing  them  have  been  at 
work,  where  they  are  most  powerful,  beneath  the  surface. 

1  The  larger  and  better  portion  of  III.   42,   328.)      There   were   married 

the  flerfry  liad  wives  in  the  reign  of  priests  in  England   as  late  as  the  fif- 

Ilenrj'  the  First,  and  this  with  the  mon-  tcenth    century.       (Wilkins,    Concilia, 

arch's  approval.    (Lyttelton,  History  of  III.  277.) 

the  Life  of  King  Henry  the  Second,  2  Rymer,  Fcedera,  H.  873. 


with  eccle- 
siastical 
abuses. 


Chap.  III.]  PURITANISM  IN  ENGLAND.  103 

A  mine  does  swifter  execution  than  a  battery,  and  takes 
more  time  to  construct.  The  English  mind,  in  the  first 
three  centuries  after  the  Norman  Conquest,  was  Discontent 
not  eminently  apt  for  speculation  of  any  sort ;  but 
it  had  had  some  training  to  practical  wisdom,  and 
its  constitutional  love  of  reality  and  right  had  not  been 
broken  down.  The  movement  connected  in  history  with 
the  name  of  WicklifFe  had  its  origin  in  the  reflections  and 
resentments  of  earlier  times.  The  scandal  and  discontent 
occasioned  by  priestly  and  monastic  licentiousness  and 
arrogance  had  naturally  been  aggravated  by  the  jealousy 
felt  by  Englishmen  of  Continental  interlopers.  A  palpa- 
ble cause  of  oftence  was  supplied  when  it  was  known  that 
year  by  year  immense  sums  were  drawn  from  England 
into  the  coffers  of  Italian  ecclesiastics,^  The  local  clergy, 
who  bore  a  large  share  of  the  burden,  themselves  sympa- 
thized in  the  disaflfection.  The  rough  hand  of  Edward 
the  First  redressed  some  of  the  existing  abuses.  The 
hostility  to  church  usurpation  excited  by  his  courageous 
policy  was  strong  enough  to  live  through  the  distractions 
which  followed  in  the  reign  of  his  son.  And  the  spirit  of 
the  nation  had  been  raised  to  its  highest  tone  by  the  vic- 
tories of  Edward   the  Third   in   France,   when 

Wickliffe. 

Wicklifle  came  forward  to  direct  against  the  false 
doctrine  of  the  Church  of  Rome  the  indignation  which 
had  been  provoked  by  its  rapacious  and  domineering  prac- 
tice. The  circumstances  and  sentiments  of  the  time  se- 
cured him  a  hearing.  Rather,  the  time  had  educated 
him  to  utter  its  own  voice. 

With  all  his  energy  and  talent,  WicklifFe,  like  Cranmer 
in  later  times,  was  not  more  the  leader  than  the  follower 
of  the  king,  court,  and  people,  in  the  movement  which 
is  called  by  his  name.  He  was  still  an  obscure  young 
scholar  at  Oxford  when  the  famous  Statute  of     _  ^ 

1351. 

Provisors  asserted  for  the  English  Church,  in  an 

1  Matthew  Paris,  Historia,  I.  6G6  -  668,  698  -  702. 


104:  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

important  particular,  independence  of  the  see  of  Rome.^ 
He  was  known  only  for  the  courage  with  which  he  had 
conducted  a  local  controversy  with  some  monks,  when,  on 
a  demand  from  the  Pope  for  an  annual  tribute  which  had 
been  promised  by  King  John,  the  Lords  and  Commons  in 
Parliament,  in  the  fortieth  year  of  Edward  the 
Third,  unanimously  disallowed  the  claim,  and 
pledged  to  the  monarch  the  resources  of  the  nation  "  to 
resist  and  withstand,  to  the  utmost  of  their  power."  ^  A 
tract  published  by  Wickliffe  on  the  question,  while  it 
presently  made  him  famous,  had  its  influence  on  his  sub- 
sequent career.  Like  Luther  afterwards,  by  increasing  op- 
position he  was  impelled  to  extended  inquiries,  and  by 
these  to  new  discoveries  and  convictions.  Determined  by 
political  considerations,  the  favor  of  the  court  harmonized 
with  that  good-will  of  the  people  which  is  sometimes  won 
by  a  bold  assault  upon  social  wrong ;  and  Wickliffe  went 
on  for  ten  years  in  a  course  of  study  and  of  controversy, 
w^iich  brought  him  with  each  succeeding  year  to  a  wider 
departure  from  the  orthodox  standard.  He  asserted  the 
sufficiency  of  the  Scriptures  as  a  rule  of  faith.  He  denied 
the  Pope's  supremacy,  the  real  presence  in  the  eucharist, 
the  validity  of  absolution  and  indulgences,  and  the  merit 
of  penance  and  monastic  vows.  He  protested  against 
the  ecclesiastical  ceremonies,  festival  days,  prayers  to 
saints,  and  auricular  confession.  Finally,  he  denounced 
the  canonical  distinction  between  priests  and  bishops,  and 
the  use  of  set  forms  of  prayer. 

WicklifFe  had  found  an  effectual  security  in  the  friend- 
ship of  John  of  Gaunt,  Duke  of  Lancaster,  who,  in  his 
father's  declining  years,  had  administered  the  kingdom. 
"With  the  fall  of  that  prince  from  power  at  the  accession 
of  his  young  nephew,  the  Reformer  was  thrown  more 
upon  the  protection  of  the  people,  the  native  clergy,  and 
the  Parliament ;  a  defence  which  did  not  fail  him,  though 

1  Parliamentary  History  of  England,  I.  118.  »  Ibid.,   130. 


Chap.  Ill]  PURITANISM  IN  ENGLAND.  105 

his  occasional  timidity  gave  painful  indications  that  he 
did  not  properly  confide  in  its  steadiness.  The  House  of 
Commons,  by  a  large  majority,  threw  out  a  bill 
to  suppress  his  translation  of  the  Bible.^  The 
University  of  Oxford  sustained  him  in  his  refusal  to  ap- 
pear before  the  primate  to  answer  to  a  charge  of  heresy. 
A  bill  which  had  passed  the  Lords,  requiring  sheriffs  to 
execute  process  issued  by  the  bishops  against  heretics, 
was  lost  in  the  Lower  House.  And  a  yet  more  signifi- 
cant step  was  taken,  when,  unwillingly  yielding  to  a  pe- 
tition from  the  Commons,  King  Richard  revoked  the 
licenses  which,  on  the  failure  of  the  proposed  law,  he 
had  granted  to  the  bishops  for  the  same  purpose. 

Meanwhile,  Wickliffe's  numerous  writings,  many  of 
them  in  the  English  tongue,  circulated  everywhere,  and 
were  read  with  avidity  by  all  sorts  of  people.^  There  was 
no  doubt  of  the  tendency  of  opinion  in  England  towards 
religious  reform.  Nor  was  its  leader  even  now  without 
support  from  the  most  exalted  personages.  Among  his 
friends,  if  not  thoroughly  his  disciples,  were  the  queen, 
and  the  king's  mother,  widow  of  the  Black  Prince.  The 
recent  Great  Schism  in  the  Church,  occasioned  by  the  dis- 
puted papal  election,  had  already  been  not  without  effect 
in  weakening  the  Church's  hold  on  the  reverence  of  the 
faithful.  There  had  begun  to  be  an  English  literature, 
and  it  was  on  WicklifFe's  side.  Piers  Ploughman's 
Vision,   Tale,  and  Crede  are  full  of  satire  on  the  super- 

1  "  The  whole  Bible  was  long  before  2  "  As  a  writer  of  those  times  tells 

his  [WickliS'e's]   days  by  virtuous  and  us,  when   you  met  two  persons  upon 

well  learned  men  translated  into  the  the  road,  you  might  be  sure  that  one  of 

English  tongue,  and  by  good  and  godly  them  was  a  Lollard."     (Gilpin,  Life  of 

people  with  devotion  and  soberness  well  John  WickhfTe,  p.  54.)     The  ifs  of  his- 

and   reverently   read."     (Sir   Thomas  tory  are  insoluble;  but  it  seems  as  if, 

More,  Dialogues  concerning  Heresyes,  had  the  hfe  of  Edward  the  Third  been 

&c..  Book  III.  Chap.  IV.)    Some  Eng-  prolonged,   or  had  his  eldest  son  sur- 

lish  versions  of  the  Psalms  made  before  vived  to  come  to  the  throne,  the  Eng- 

Wickliffe's  time  are  still  preserved  in  lish   Reformation  might   have   had  an 

manuscript.      (WicklifFe's   Bible,   edit,  earlier  date,  and  have  proceeded  mora 

Oxford,  1850,  Preface,  iii.  -  vi.)  wisely  and  more  radically. 


106  HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  T. 

stitions  of  the  Church  and  the  lives  of  the  clergy.^  Chau- 
cer, courtier  as  he  was,  is  believed  to  have  been  Wick- 
liffe's  personal  friend.  Nothing  could  have  better  served 
the  Reformer's  purpose  than  that  free  dealing  of  the  poet 
with  the  Church,  the  clergy,  and  the  friars,  which  at  the 
same  time  indicated  and  influenced  the  direction  of  the 
cultivated  intelligence  of  England." 

Through    many    dangers    and    some    shifts,   Wickliffe 
reached  the  peaceful  end  of  a  life  of  sixty  years. 

1384.  •'     •' 

The  chord  which  he  had  not  struck  alone,  but 
only  with  an  eminently  cunning  hand,  did  not  cease  to 
vibrate  when   his   touch  was   withdrawn.      It  was  nine 

years  after  his  death  when  the  Statute  of  Prcemu- 

1393. 

nire  prohibited  under  heavy  penalties  the  bring- 
ing of  papal  bulls  into  the  kingdom  for  the  translation  of 
bishops  and  for  other  specified  purposes. 

The  influence  of  the  court  took  a  diflerent  direction. 
Religious  when  the  unsteady  throne  of  an  unlineal  house 
LircLlriM  required  to  be  propped  by  the  spiritual  power, 
kings.  ^j.  j^-g  accession,  Henry  the  Fourth  thought  it 
prudent  to  make  proclamation  that  he  would  protect  the 
ecclesiastical  unity  and  purity  against  the  Lollards ;  and 
one  of  the  first  acts  of  his  le^fislation,  visitin<?  her- 
esy  with  severe  penalties,  testified  the  variance  m 

1  A  passage  in  the  Vision  (vv.  C217  of  these  sonjrs,  in  Latin,  (pp.  27  and 
-0203)  is  a  sort  of  prophecy  of  the  44,)  belonging  to  the  beginning  of  the 
Reformation.  thiiteenth  century,  a  song  in  Konnan 

2  Chaucer's  treatment  of  this  subject  French  (p.  13  7)  of  a  httle  later  period, 
may  be  one  feature  of  his  imitation  of  and  a  poem  (p.  323)  "on  the  evil  times 
his  masters,  the  Trouveres.  But  it  of  Edward  IL,"  •written  in  the  begin- 
cannot  the  less  be  regarded  as  a  re-  ning  of  the  reign  of  his  son,  may  be 
flection  of  a  style  of  thought  of  those  referred  to  as  characteristic  specimens. 
Englishmen  for  whom  he  wrote.  The  Of  the  collection  of  poems  attributed 
reader  who  is  curious  to  know  how  the  to  ]\Iapes, the  editor  says  (xxi.),  "They 
poets  dealt  with  the  clergy  in  those  are  not  the  expressions  of  hostility  of 
days  will  do  well  to  look  also  at  the  one  man  against  an  order  of  monks, 
Latin  poems  of  Walter  IMapes  of  the  but  of  the  indignant  patriotism  of  a 
twelfth  century,  and  at  Wright's  Politi-  considerable  portion  of  the  English  na- 
cal  Songs,  j)ublished,  as  were  Mapes's  tion  against  the  encroachments  of  eccle- 
poems,  by  the  Camden  Society.     Two  siastical  and  civil  tyranny." 


Chap.  III.]  PURITANISM  IN  ENGLAND.  107 

his  opinions,  or  in  his  politics,  from  those  of  his  father.^ 
In  the  following  reign,  Lord  Cobham  forfeited  his  high 
favor  at  court  by  avowing  in  the  royal  presence  his  convic- 
tion that  the  Pope  was  "  the  great  Antichrist  foretold  in 
Holy  Writ,"  and  ultimately  paid  the  price  of  his  heroism 
at  the  stake.^  In  the  infancy  of  the  "  meek  usurper " 
who  next  succeeded,  an  idle  vengeance  was  taken  by 
the  burning  of  the  great  Reformer's  bones.  But  it  was 
not  without  strenuous  opposition  from  a  watchful  House 
of  Commons  that  any  one  of  tlie  three  Lancastrian  Henrys, 
father,  son,  and  grandson,  studied  to  win  ecclesiastical 
support  by  encroachments  on  the  liberties  of  English- 
men. 

The  period  of  the  Wars  of  the  Hoses  was  too  much 
agitated  with  military  violence  and  political  vicissitudes 
to  permit  questions  of  religion  to  retain  their  recent  prom- 
inence in  the  public  view.  But  the  Church  did  not  fail 
to  derive  advantage  from  a  perilous  juncture  of  affairs 
which  tempted  both  parties  to  court  its  favor;  and  the 
crafty  prince  who  inaugurated  the  new  dynasty  took 
care  not  to  hazard  the  displeasure  of  the  priest  on  whose 
bull  he  relied  to  heal  his  defective  title.  Meanwhile  the 
seed  planted  in  earlier  times  had  not  perished,  but  shot 
firm  root  in  a  congenial  soil ;  and  when  the  self-will  of 
Henry  the  Eighth  dictated  the  secession  from  Rome,  the 
movement  was  sanctified  and  secured  by  an  honest  re- 
ligious sense  widely  diffused  among  his  subjects. 

The  reformation  from  Popery  in  England  would  not 

1  This  act  provided  that,  upon  sen-  Cobham  as  having  had  a  principal  hand 
tence  against  heretics  by  the  bishop  or  in  giving  stability  to  the  opinions  he 
his  commissary,  the  mayors,  sheriffs,  or  embraced.  He  showed  the  world  that 
bailiffs  should  "  in  some  high  place  religion  was  not  merely  calculated  for  a 
burn  them  to  death  before  the  people."  cloister,  but  might  be  introduced  into 
This  was  the  first  law  for  burning  in  fashionable  life ;  that  it  was  not  below 
England.  There  is  much  doubt,  how-  a  gentleman  to  run  the  last  hazard 
ever,  whether  it  ever  had  the  assent  of  in  its  defence."  (Gilpin,  Life  of  Lord 
the  Commons.  Cobham,  p.  153.) 

2  "  We   cannot    but  consider  Lord 


108  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

be  properly  described  as  the  work  of  tlie  king  and  court. 
AVhat   that   rcsokite  monarch  mii^ht  have  done 


The  refor- 


*&' 


niationfrom  in  thc  fucc  of  obstaclcs  greater  than  actually 
confronted  him,  it  would  be  bootless  to  inquire. 
But  the  principle  of  more  considerable  changes  than  those 
which  took  place  under  his  auspices  had  long  been  ger- 
minating. Nothing  came  to  the  birth  in  the  sixteenth 
century  that  had  not  lain  in  embryo,  in  WicklifFe's  time, 
under  the  common  heart  of  England.^ 

When,  after  the  convulsions  which  swept  the  house  of 
Tudor  to  the  throne,  affairs  had  settled  into  their  former 
channel,  the  Commons  moved  sooner  than  the  king. 
When  the  second  monarch  of  that  line  wrote  the  book 
against  Luther  which  earned  for  thc  sovereigns  of  Eng- 
land the  title  of  "  Defender  of  the  Faith,"  his  immediate 
aim  was  the  security  of  his  own  subjects  against  the 
spreading  heresy  to  which  he  saw  them  earnestly  in- 
clined. Eight  years  later,  when  the  impediments  thrown 
by  Rome  in  the  way  of  his  divorce  had  prepared  him  for 
a  different  policy,   the  action   of  Parliament  in 

1530.  ... 

passing  several  bills  unfriendly  to  the  clergy^  in- 
dicated the  temper  on  which  he  could  rely  in  that  quarter, 
should  he  resolve  to  pursue  his  quarrel  with  the  Pope ; 

and  an  enactment  which  cut  off  a  large  source  of 

]532.  ^ 

supply  to  the  Papal  treasury  from  the  English 
Church,  and  commanded  disregard  of  any  censures  with 
which  the   Pontiff  might  resent  that  measure,   afforded 
further  proof  of  the  determined  spirit   which  had  been 
aroused.     Parliament  readily  seconded,  or  anticipated,  the 
king's  wishes  in  prohibiting  appeals  to  Pome  in 
cases  belonging  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  eccle- 
siastical courts ;  in  subjecting  monasteries  to  his 
visitation ;  in  providing  for  the  appointment  and 

1  That    important    work,    Froude's  (Chap.  \J.)  thc  state  of  religious  senti- 

"  History  of  England  from  the  Fall  of  ment  in  England  before  the  Keforma- 

Wolsey,"  &('.,  published  since  this  chap-  tion. 

ter    was   written,    luminously   exhibita  2  Parliamentary  History,  I.  507. 


Chap.  III.]  PURITANISM  IN  ENGLAND.  109 

institution  of  bishops  without  the  Papal  sanction ;  ^  and 
in  other  measures  of  similar  import  and  of  equal  bold- 
ness. The  clergy  generally  were  not  behind  the  rest  of 
the  people  in  zeal  for  these  reforms.  And  when  alle- 
giance to  Rome  was  sundered  by  the  act  of  Parliament 
which  declared  the  sovereign  of  England  to  be  the  head 
of  her  Church,  the  popular  sympathy  and  approval  sus- 
tained that  momentous  measure. 

In  looking  back  upon  these  events,  it  is  unavoidable  to 
see  that,  in  the  public  sentiment  which  preceded,  accom- 
panied, and  was  stimulated  by  the  emancipation  from  the 
authority  of  Rome,  one  great  element  was  the  desire  to 
become  acquainted  with,  and  to  be  directed  by,  the  sincere 
truth  of  the  Gospel.  But  it  is  no  matter  of  surprise,  if 
the  politicians  about  the  throne  neither  strongly  sympa- 
thized with  this  desire,  nor  knew  how  to  estimate  its 
force.  For  one  who  regarded  the  passing  change  from 
the  point  of  view  of  Cranmer,  the  king's  most  trusted 
counsellor,  the  policy  of  that  eminent  prelate  was  not  dis- 
honest. To  conciliate  all  sorts  of  men  to  the  new  order 
of  things  was  a  reasonable  and  a  rightful  aim ;  and  if  he 
erred  in  overrating  the  continued  influence  of  the  Romish 
Church  on  the  public  mind,  and  the  consequent  impor- 
tance of  obtaining  favor  by  as  large  concessions  to  the 
Romish  doctrine  and  ritual  as  would  be  consistent  with 
the  practical  reforms  accounted  indispensable,  the  error 
was  a  natural  incident  of  the  prejudices  of  a  churchman's 
education.  At  all  events,  relief  from  the  control  and  the 
exactions  of  the  Papal  See  was  substantially  all  that  was 
obtained,  in  the  reign  of  Henry  the  Eighth,  in  the  way 
of  religious  reformation. 

In  the  last  years  of  that  reign,  the  reformation  re- 
ceded rather  than  stood  still ;  but  the  severity  of  the  laws 
found  necessary  to  keep  it  in  check  shows  the  restlessness 
and  wide  diffusion  of  the  impatience  for  further  reform. 

1  Parliamentary  History,  I.  524: -527. 
VOL.  I.  JO 


110  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

A   royal  edict,    registered   by  the  Convocation,  declared 
the  real   presence   in  the  consecrated  elements, 

1536.  .  . 

and  the  obligation  of  penance,  of  auricular  con- 
fession, of  the  invocation  of  saints,  of  the  use  of  images, 
and  of  the  ecclesiastical  vestments  and  observances  in 
general.  The  Statute  of  the  Six  Articles  con- 
demned to  forfeiture  of  estate,  and  to  death  by 
burning,  whosoever  should  deny  the  doctrine  of  transub- 
stantiation ;  and  denounced  imprisonment  and  confisca- 
tion for  the  first  offence,  and  death  for  the  second,  against 
such  as  should  "  in  word  or  writing  speak  against "  the 
celibacy  of  the  clergy,  the  communion  in  one  kind,  vows 
of  chastity,  private  masses,  or  auricular  confession.^  A 
later  law  forbade  the  using  or  keeping,  in  the 
king's  dominions,  of  the  Scriptures  in  Tindal's 
recent  translation,  and  of  "  all  other  books  contrary  to 
the  doctrine  set  forth"  in  a  Body  of  Divinity  published 
by  royal  authority  under  the  title  of  "  The  Erudition  of  a 
Christian  Man."  ^  "  All  spiritual  persons  who  preached  or 
taught  contrary  to  the  doctrine  set  forth  in  that  book," 
were  for  the  first  offence  to  be  permitted  to  recant ;  for 
the  second,  they  were  to  bear  a  fagot ;  and  for  the  third, 
to  be  burned.^ 

Nor  was  it  left  doubtful  whether  the  brutal  king  meant 
to  execute  his  heinous  threats.  A  gentleman  named  Bain- 
ham,  accused  of  Lutheran  opinions,  after  being  scourged 
and  put  to  the  rack  under  the  eye  of  Sir  Thomas  More, 
was  burned  at  Smithfield.  Bilney,  a  priest,  expiated  the 
same  offence  by  the  same  fate.  Three  hurdles  conveyed 
to  the  place  of  execution  each  a  Catholic  and  a  Protestant, 
the  former  to  be  hanged  for  adherence  to  the  supremacy 

1  Parliamentarj' History, I.  538-540.  "a  select  number"  of  clergymen,  act- 
—  Burnet,  History  of  the  Reformation,  ing  "  by  virtue  of  a  commission  from 
I.  259,  edit.  1(581.  —  Cranmer  was  at  the  king  confirmed  in  Parliament." 
first  strongly  opposed  to  this  ferocious  (Ibid.,  286.) 

measure.     (Ibid.,  205.)  3  Ibid.,  322.    Parliamentary  History, 

2  This  was  a  fruit  of  the  labors  of    I.  657. 


Edward  ths 
Sixth. 


Chap.  III.]  PURITANISM   IN  ENGLAND.  Ill 

of  Rome,  the  latter  to  be  burned  for  dissent  from  its  doc- 
trines. The  second  year  preceding  the  death  of  Henry, 
Ann  Askew  suffered  at  the  stake  for  a  denial  of  transub- 
stantiation. 

The  strong  tendency  of  thought  in  England   towards 
a  reformed  religion,  embarrassed  as  it  was  in  its  natural 
progress,  had  still  been  materially  developed  by  the  events 
of  this  reign.     Whatever  had  been   left  undone  or  ad- 
versely done,  emancipation  from  the  Papal  sway  had  been 
attained.      The   accession   of  Edward  the  Sixth 
opened  a  brighter  prospect.      Guided  by  those  the"reforma- 
calculations  which,  under  the  most  absolute  gov-  reign "r  ^ 
ernments,  politicians  never  fail  to  make  of  the 
direction  of  the  popular  sentiment,  and  assured  by 
their  reliance  on  the  devout  Protestant  inclinations  of  the 
child  in  whose  name  they  ruled,  the  Duke  of  Somerset 
and  his  coadjutors  proceeded  confidently  with  a 
different  work  from  any  in  the  contemplation  of 
the  late  monarch ;    and  under  their  better  auspices  the 
reformation    became  too   strong  to  be  overcome  by  the 
stakes  and  scaffolds  of  the  one,  or  the  corrupting  state 
caresses  of  the  other,  of  the  next  two  following  reigns. 

The  thunder  of  the  Sia;  Articles  was  permitted  to  die 
away.     Prisoners  for  heresy  were  set  at  liberty,  and  fugi- 
tives were  allowed  to  return  from  the  Continent.     Church 
images  were  destroyed.    Preaching,  which  had  fallen  much 
into  disuse,  was  revived.    The  Bible  in  English  was  placed 
in  every  church.     Before  the  close  of  the  new  king's  first 
year,   bills  were   passed   directing  the  dispensa- 
tion  of  both  elements  of  the  eucharist  to   the 
laity,  and  repealing  the  penal  laws  against  the 
Lollards    and    the    Statute   of  the    Six    Articles. 
Soon  followed  the  important  step  of  providing      1553 
for  the  uniformity  of  public  worship  by  requiring      ^p"'* 
all  ministers  to  use  the  liturgy  which  had  been  prepared 
under  the  superintendence  of  Cranmer,  the  same  substan- 


112  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

tially  which  guides  the  devotions  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land at  the  present  day.^  Altars,  incense,  candles,  and 
holy  water  were  condemned,  as  instruments  of  a  super- 
stitious worship.  The  use  of  the  ecclesiastical  habit  — 
the  rochet,  the  cape,  and  the  surplice  —  was  still  required. 
The  conflicts  of  great  principles  have  often  taken  their 
,    shape   from   seemin":ly    trivial    occasions.       The 

Question  of  -•-  o   •/ 

clerical  cos-    qucstiou  rcspcctiug  clerical  costume,  destined  to 

tume.  .  __. 

dismember  the  Protestant  Church  of  England, 
came  forward  into  prominent  importance  during  this 
reign.  The  advocates  of  uniformity  in  sacred  habiliments 
maintained  that  it  contributed  to  the  seemliness  and  de- 
cency of  public  worship  ;  that  unnecessary  departures 
from  the  practice  of  the  Romish  Church  were  inexpedient, 
as  giving  needless  displeasure  to  its  friends ;  and  that  only 
a  factious  temper,  which  deserved  no  indulgence,  could 
oppose  the  will  of  rulers  in  respect  to  a  matter  so  indif- 
ferent. On  the  other  hand,  it  was  contended  that  in  the 
popular  mind  the  clerical  habit  was  intimately  associated 
with  the  idolatry  of  Rome ;  that  it  was  represented  by 
the  priests,  and  believed  by  their  dupes,  to  be  essential 
to  the  efficacy  of  the  public  prayers  and  ordinances ;  that 
it  was  part  and  parcel  of  the  mischievous  machinery  of 
the  mass ;  and  that  a  Christian  minister  owed  it  to  the 
simplicity  and  godly  sincerity  which  became  his  vocation 
to  abstain  from  all  that  might  implicate  him  as  a  sharer 
in  such  imposture.  John  Hooper,  appointed 
Bishop  of  Gloucester,  resolved  to  decline  the  pro- 
motion sooner  than  submit  to  the  dishonor  of  clothing 
himself  in  the  episcopal  robes.  His  abilities  and  popular- 
ity were  such  that  the  episcopate  could  ill  spare  him. 
The  young  king  would  have  had  him  indulged ;  but  the 
pertinacity  of  Cranmer  and  Ridley  was  not  to  be  over- 
come. They  plied  their  impracticable  brother  with  argu- 
ment.    They  put  him  in  gaol.     At  length,  by  alternate 

1  Parliamentary  History,  I.  593,  591. 


Chap.  III.]  PUKITANISM  IN  ENGLAND.  113 

severity  and  persuasion,  lie  was  induced  so  far  to  abate 
his  scruples  as  to  consent  to  wear  the  habit  of  his  order 
at  his  consecration,  and  once  afterwards  in  preaching  at 
court.  Thi^  done,  he  put  it  on  no  more.  And  his  exam- 
ple was  presently  followed  with  impunity  by  some  bishops, 
and  by  numbers  of  other  clergymen. 

The  course  of  a  man  like  Hooper,  taken  with  such 
deliberation,  is  not  hastily  to  be  set  down  as  irrational, 
even  had  it  not  been,  as  it  was,  pertinaciously  defended 
and  followed  by  thousands  of  calm  and  single-hearted  men 
in  his  own  and  in  later  times.  The  association  which 
in  their  minds  connected  a  dress  with  a  principle  or  senti- 
ment has  become  faint.-^  The  vital  point  of  honor  and  con- 
science that  belonged  to  it  now  attaches  to  other  things. 
But  it  is  impossible  correctly  to  judge  the  obligations  and 
necessities  of  one  age  by  the  circumstances  and  views  of 
another.  Undoubtedly  honest  minds  might  determine 
differently  the  question  which  was  soon  to  divide  the  state 
Church  and  the  Non-conformists.  But  as  certainly  the 
doctrine  of  the  Puritans  concerning  the  connection  and 
mutual   influences   between   forms    and  opinions,   so  far 


*  A  sentiment  determined  theircourse,  sooner  have  received  each  others'  swords 
more  cogent  than  all  the  learned  ar-  into  their  bosoms  than  have  exchanged 
gument  they  expended  on  its  defence,  their  decorations.  A  national  flag  is  a 
A  man  of  honor  will  not  be  bribed  to  few  square  yards  of  coarse  bunting ; 
display  himself  in  a  fool's  cap ;  —  yet  but  associations  invest  it,  which  touch 
why  not  in  a  fool's  cap  as  soon  as  in  whatever  is  strongest  and  deepest  in 
any  apparel  associated  in  his  mind,  and  a  nation's  character.  Its  presence  com- 
in  the  minds  of  those  whom  he  respects,  mands  a  homage  as  reverential  as  that 
with  the  shame  of  mummery  and  false-  which  salutes  an  Indian  idol,  and  tor- 
hood  ?  To  these  men  the  cape  and  sur-  rents  of  blood  of  brave  men  have  age- 
plice  were  the  livery  of  Rome.  They  after  age  been  poured  out  to  save  it  from 
would  not  put  on  the  uniform  of  that  affront.  The  putting  off  of  the  surplice 
hated  power,  while  they  were  marshal-  was  as  much  the  fruit  and  the  sign  of 
ling  an  array  of  battle  against  its  ranks,  the  great  reality  of  a  religious  revolu^ 
An  officer,  French,  American,  or  Eng-  tion,  as  a  political  revolution  was  be- 
lish,  would  be  outraged  by  the  proposal  tokened  and  effected  when  the  cross  of 
to  be  seen  In  the  garb  of  a  foreign  ser-  St.  George  came  down  from  over  the 
vice.  The  wearers  respectively  of  the  fortresses  along  fifteen  degrees  of  the 
white  and  of  the  tricolor  cockades  would  North  American  coast. 
10* 


114  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

from  being  fanciful  or  fastidious,  had  foundations  as  deep 
as  anything  in  moral  truth  or  in  human  nature.  In- 
deed, it  did  but  recognize  that  very  principle  of  intel- 
lectual association  on  which  the  rulers  of  the  Church 
had  proceeded  in  introducing  the  occasion  of  the  dis- 
pute. 

^'  On  the  one  side  in  this  contest  were  statesmen  desiring 
fet  and  mainly  the  order  and  quiet  of  the  realm.  On 
tefe  other  side  were  religious  men  desirous  that,  at  all 
ti^'^ards,  God  might  be  worshipped  in  purity,  and  served 
^M'A'^simplicity  and  zeal.  It  is  easy  to  understand  the 
■^^ekities  and  alarms  of  the  former  class,  but  the  per- 
^^^tn'ey' of  their  opponents  is  not  therefore  to  be  accounted 
•fv^iiii^iM  and  perverse.  It  is  impossible  to  blame  them 
teff'  ^yitl^c.  "  If  a  man  believes  marriage  to  be  a  sacrament 
m  tFe'''^en^ePof  the  popes  and  councils,  let  him  symbolize 
'WWf^'thb^  ^^^'■ng  of  a  ring ;  if  he  believes  in  exorcism  by 
life '^si^liiii^g'6F the  cross,  let  him  have  it  impressed  on  his 
'}maiit^^'^l3'fb'^  ^ih  baptism ;  if  he  believes  the  bread  of  the 
feti(3hSftyt' fd'-b^  God,  let  him  go  down  on  his  knees  before 
it.^  ^But-^Tf^'IteKeve  nothing  of  the  kind,  and,  as  honest 
men,  we  will  not  profess  so  to  believe  by  act  or  sign  any 
liiOTe'^htifiifbyf'WOTdi?''  Theirs  was  no  struggle  against  the 
tMic)^,Vtlt''p!MM^\'he  State's  control  over  it.  The  State 
;piQ¥ied,.fc,t}ie8tis>ei)-,t0pi  strong  for  those  who  truly  repre- 
^(?ttt6il';'thd'  Ghm-efe'^;  Wrlk  In  the  next  century  their  turn 
.9l{,ttffisi^V<f[  vSJip^^^^^  In  the  revolutions  of  thought 

which!' feav-erjfoMowedf  eafoh "Other,  the  ancient  ensigns  and 
eh\yi&i's'haVfe''ivffl-ii|iill  fo^'the  significance  which  enabled 
ItUeWotQr^UmwIfictfn'a.iat^tJ^prn  contest;  and  now  we  are 
tc'mpted'  tO''''W.oiii'd«r''St  el"j#Ptift'acity  which  in  its  time  was 

-m\  TlieratrangciaieiMiy  by8i;whi!ih-T.tbE- Princess  Mary  succeed- 
'^A.ce^Rlonof'fed''t^'*thfe'<hfdtt6;^A  slugular  mixture  of 

Sfft' '"^y-rAer-^PPpufel^.  ^XiAAw  ttep,o]tftP  elements  of  author- 
ity.    Irrcspfe€t?vec'bff"fhd-"'q^eiti©n^'^o^cerning  her  legiti- 


Chap.  III.]  PURITANISM  IN  ENGLAND.  115 

macy,  which  the  fluctuating  decisions  of  the  tribunals  had 
rendered  practically  insoluble  as  a  question  of  law,  her 
title  was  founded  on  the  testamentary  settlement  of  her 
father,  which  settlement  he  had  been  empowered  by  act 
of  Parliament  to  make.  Henry  the  Eighth  had  be- 
queathed his  kingdom  as  if  it  had  been  personal  prop- 
erty, but  the  Peers  and  Commons  had  consented  that  he 
should  so  bequeath  it ;  if,  on  the  one  hand,  there  was  an 
amazing  departure  on  the  side  of  prerogative  from  the 
principle  of  hereditary  right,  there  was  a  no  less  striking 
deflection  from  it,  on  the  other,  towards  the  notion  of  a 
discretion  vested  in  the  Estates  in  respect  to  the  succes- 
sion of  the  crown.  Edward  had  no  such  sanction  for  the 
settlement  by  which,  in  his  will,  he  gave  the  monarchy  of 
England  to  Lady  Jane  Grey.  If,  with  the  existing  feelings 
of  Englishmen  respecting  the  indefeasible  character  of  the 
royal  dignity,  the  young  legatee  had  had  any  chance  of 
being  established  on  the  throne,  it  was  forfeited  by  the 
extreme  unpopularity  of  the  Duke  of  Northumberland, 
her  champion.  To  add  to  the  complications  of  the  time, 
the  regard  entertained  in  the  Protestant  circles  for  Ann 
Boleyn,  and  now  transferred  to  her  daughter,  Elizabeth, 
prevented  a  concentration  of  the  Protestant  interest  in  sup- 
port of  Lady  Jane ;  for  the  settlement  of  Edward,  which 
set  aside  the  claims  of  the  Princess  Mary,  disposed  in  the 
same  manner  of  those  of  his  younger  sister,  whom,  had  it 
taken  efiiect,  it  would  have  placed  for  ever  out  of  the  line 
of  succession. 

Mary  promised  the  Suflblk  malecontents,  who  were 
mustering  for  resistance,  that  she  would  "  make  no  altera- 
tion in  religion."  When  her  prospect  brightened,  1553. 
she  still  assured  the  Council,  that,  "  though  her  ^^^'  ^ 
conscience  was  settled  in  matters  of  religion,  yet  she  was 
resolved  not  to  compel  others  but  by  the  preaching  of 
the  word."  Under  these  circumstances,  there  seemed  no 
course  open   to  her   Protestant   subjects   but   to  submit 


116  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

themselves  to  her  government,  and  hope  the  hcst  from 

her  indulgence  and  her  integrity.     When  such  hopes  were 

dolefully  frustrated,  the  time  of  oppression  was 

Her  harJ  •  _  -"^  ■•■ 

treatment  of  not   loHg   cuough    to    admit   of  organizing    the 
means  of  redress.     The  disastrous  failure  of  the 
ill-concerted  and  ill-conducted  insurrection  in  Kent  helped 
to  establish  the  queen's  authority.     Some  time  was  neces- 
sary to  discover  that  no  mercy  was  to  be  expected  at  her 
i554_      hands.     Ilcr  marriage  soon  followed  her  acces- 
•'"'^'  '•     sion  ;  and  when  it  became  probable  that  she  would 
be  childless,  the  hope  of  a  better  order  of  things,  naturally 
becoming  identified  with  the  hope  of  the  succession  of 
Elizabeth,  many  years  her  junior,  repressed  the  idea  of 
obtaining  relief  by  any  hazardous  proceedings.     An  easy 
or  terrified  Parliament  rescinded  at  a  single  blow 
all  the  laws  respecting  religion  which  had  been 
passed  in  the  last  reign.^     The  history  of  Protestantism 
in  England  under  Queen  Mary  is  the  history  of  the  suficr- 
ings  of  its  confessors.     Nearly    three   hundred   persons, 
among  them  five  bishops,  were  burned ;    imprisonments 
and  confiscations  followed  one  upon  anotlier ;  numbers  of 
dissentients  sought  safety  in  exile,  and  tliose  who  remained 
at  home  were  reduced  to  silence.     Members  of  the  Lower 
House  were  fined  for  absenting  themselves  from  Parlia- 
ment, where  they  could  not  with  good  conscience  pro- 
mote the  policy  of  the  court,  and  could  not  with  safety 
oppose  it.     At  length  this  shocking  misrule,  having  lasted 
,558.      more  than  five  years,  was  brought  to  an  end  by 
^"^-  '''• .  Queen  Mary's  death. 

The  accession  of  the  younger  daughter  of  Henry  the 
Eighth  revived  the  policy  of  that  monarch,  with 

Accession  of  "  x  ^ 

Queen  Eiiz-   somc  modificatlous,  due  less  to  any  difference  in 

the  character  of  the  new  sovereign  than  to  the 

altered  condition  of  the  times.     The  temper  of  Elizabeth 

was  as  absolute  as  her  father's,  and  she  had,  on  the  most 

1  Parliamentary  History,  I.  009,  GIO. 


CnAP.  III.]  PURITANISM  IN  ENGLAND.  117 

favorable  estimate,  a  scarcely  better  sense  of  religious  con- 
siderations as  overruling  those  of  politics.  But  England 
was  no  longer  protected,  as  in  Henry's  time,  by  friendly 
relations  with  the  Continental  powers.  The  most  impor- 
tant of  those  relations  which  lately  subsisted  had  been 
just  severed  by  the  death  of  the  queen  at  once  of  Eng- 
land and  of  Spain,  and  England  had  but  herself  to  rely 
upon  in  a  critical  conjuncture  of  affairs.  The  Protestant 
interest  in  that  country  had  been  acquiring  strength,  by 
reason  both  of  the  natural  progress  of  the  sentiment  of 
reform,  and  of  disgust  at  the  cruelties  of  the  late  reign. 
And  the  queen's  maternal  parentage  and  early  associations 
implied  influences  neutralizing  those  influences  of  per- 
sonal temperament  which  inclined  her  to  the  pageantry 
and  despotism  of  Rome. 

Her  long  reign  began  with  the  restitution  of  the  Prot- 
estant order  of  things  by  a  re-enactment  of  the  laws  con- 
cerning religion  which  had  been  passed  in  her  brother's 
time.     Presently  followed  the  two  memorable  statutes  de- 
nominated the  Act  of  Supremac}/  and  the  Act  of  Uniform' 
it\)  ;  —  the  former  requiring  of  ecclesiastics  and 
official  laymen  an  oath  of  renunciation  of  the  an-  pre.nacy  and 
thority,  Avhether  temjDoral  or  spiritual,  of  any  for-  ^^.1^}!^"' 
eign  priest  or  prelate,  and  of  recognition  of  the      ^m' 
sovereign's  "  supremacy  in  all  causes  ecclesiastical 
and  civil "  ;   the  latter  forbidding  all  ministers  to  conduct 
public  worship  otherwise  than  according  to  the  rubric,  un- 
der the  penalty  of  imprisonment  for  life  for  a  third  oflence. 

Besides  those  Catholics  who  were  punished  by  imprison- 
ment and  forfeiture  of  estates,  two  hundred  suf-  ri.e  queen's 
fcred  death  for  their  religion  in  this  reign.  Still  witifRmnan- 
the  queen's  sympathies  were  to  a  great  extent  '^"'" 
with  the  professors  of  the  old  faith,  and  her  resentments 
the  strongest  against  those  of.  her  subjects  who  desired  to 
subject  it  to  the  most  thorough  reform.  She  had  an  altar, 
with  tapers  and  a  crucifix,  set  up  in  her  private  chapel ; 


118  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

she  said  prayers  to  the  Virgin ;  she  censured  a  preacher 
for  denying  the  real  presence ;  and  she  lost  no  opportu- 
nity to  express  her  displeasure  at  marriages  of  the  clergy. 
At  different  places  on  the  Continent,  to  which  fugitives 
from  the  persecution  of  Mary  had  withdrawn,  particularly 
at  Frankfort  on  the  Maine,  where  Cox,  afterwards  Bishop 
of  Ely,  and  John  Knox,  were  the  opposing  champions, 
there  had  been  a  vehement  discussion  of  the  questions 
which  divided  such  as  were  content  with  an  establishment 
of  religion  like  that  of  Henry  the  Eighth,  from  others 
who  desired  further  reforms,  and  leaned  to  the  simplicity 
of  the  institutions  of  Calvin.  The  dispute  was  transferred 
to  England  on  the  return  of  the  exiles  to  their  country 
after  the  accession  of  Elizabeth.  The  Puritans,  as  they 
had  come  to  be  called,  resisted  the  impositions  of  the 
rubric  as  to  the  use  of  the  cross  in  baptism,  of  the  ring 
in  marriage,  of  the  kneeling  posture  at  the  communion, 
and  especially  of  the  ecclesiastical  vestments.  The  cler- 
gymen eminent  for  character,  ability,  and  learning  were 
almost  unanimously  opposed  to  these  observances,^  which 
accordingly  seemed  going  fast  into  disuse,  the  neglect  of 
them  by  officiating  ministers  being  connived  at  by  the 
rulers  of  the  Church.     A  proposal  for  their  formal 

15G3. 

abolition  was  lost  in  the  Lower  House  of  Convo- 
cation by  a  majority  of  only  one  in  a  hundred  and  seven- 
teen votes,  —  a  majority  determined  by  the  proxies  of 
clergymen  who  had  not  heard  the  debate. 

1  "  Except  Arclibishop  Parker Anglican    establishment    is    ascribed." 

and  Cox,  Bishoj)  of  Ely, all  the  (Ilallam,  Constitutional  History  of  Eng- 

most  eminent  churchmen,  such  as  Jew-  land,  I.   188.)      Even  Whitgift,  aftcr- 

ell,  Grindal,  Sandys,  Nowell,  were  in  wards  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  then 

favor  of  leaving  off  the  surplice,  and  Lady  Margaret  Professor  of  Divinity  at 

what  were  called  the   Popish  ceremo-  Caniljridgc,  signed  the  remonstrance  of 

nies.     Whether  their  objections  are  to  that  University  (November  2G,  1.565) 

be   deemed    narrow   and   frivolous   or  against  the  use  of  "  the  old  popish  hab- 

otherwi.se,  it  is  inconsistent  with  veracity  its."     (Strype,  Life  of  Archbishop  Par- 

to  dissemble  that  the  queen  alone  was  ker.  Appendix,  No.  39 ;  comp.  Strype, 

the  cause  of  retaining  those  observances  Annals    of  the    Reformation,   Vol.  L 

to  which  the  great  separation  from  the  Chap.  XLL-XLIV.) 


Chap.  III.]  PUEITANISM  IN  ENGLAND.  119 

But  upon  this  point  the  queen  was  resolute  to  allow  no 
diversity  and  no  freedom.  Parker,  the  primate,  was  of 
the  same  mind ;  —  perhaps  from  conviction ;  perhaps  from 
the  petulant  pertinacity  so  natural  to  churchmen  in  high 
place;  possibly,  as  has  been  surmised,  from  fear  that,  if 
the  reform  should  proceed  too  far,  his  mistress  would 
lapse  into  Homanism.     A  royal  proclamation  re-  Prociama- 

1  •  r  • ,         •  ,  1  o  lion  for  con- 

quired   uniiormity  m   peremptory   terms.      bum-  formuy. 
moned  for  contumacy  before  the  Archbishop  and      ^^"^" 
Grindal,  their  diocesan,  thirty-seven  London  ministers  out 
of  ninet}-eight,  men  distinguished  among  their  fellow^s  by 
gifts  and  graces,  were  suspended  and  deprived  of  their 
cures.     Some  of  them  having  proceeded  to  collect  their 
disciples  for  worship  and  the  administration  of 
the  ordinances  at  Plumber's  Hall,  in  London,  the 
government  broke  up  the  meeting  and  sent  fourteen  or 
fifteen  persons  to  gaol. 

The  Non-conformists,  however,  had  the  good-will  of  not 
a  few  of  the  most  powerful  and  trusted  courtiers.  Besides 
the  prelates,  most  of  whom  scarcely  disguised  their  re- 
spect for  a  course  which  they  could  not  make  up  their 
minds  to  follow,  no  less  considerable  persons  than  the 
Earl  of  Leicester,  Sir  Nicholas  Bacon,  and  Secretary 
Walsingham,  either  more  or  less  favored  their  views,  or 
were  disposed  to  treat  them  with  indulgence;  and  even 
Burleigh,  whose  ostensible  place  was  by  the  primate's 
side,  did  not  hesitate  to  express  regret  for  his  severity. 
So  manifest  was  the  imprudence  of  driving  from  the 
Church  a  large  number  of  its  most  capable  servants,  and 
leaving  it  in  the  charge  of  ministers  of  doubtful  fidelity 
to  the  Protestant  cause,  that  the  queen  and  her  advisers 
shrank,  for  the  moment,  from  the  severe  course  on  which 
they  had  entered.  The  more  earnesf  spirits  took  advan- 
tage of  this  hesitation  and  inactivity.  Cartwright,  Profes- 
sor of  Divinity  at  Cambridge,  published  a  treatise 
against  episcopacy  and  the  royal   supremacy  in 


120  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAISTD.  [Book  I. 

ecclesiastical  matters,  maintaining  presbyteiy  to  be  the 
original  and  only  rightful  form  of  church  government. 
When  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles  of  the  Church,  matured 
ten  years  before,  were  submitted  to  Parliament  for  ratifi- 
cation, the  Puritan  interest  was  so  strong  in  that  body, 
that  the  legal  obligation  of  clergymen  to  subscribe  the  in- 
strument was  limited  to  those  parts  of  it  which  relate  to 
the  Christian  faith  and  sacraments,  the  portions  treating 
of  church  government  and  ceremonies  being  left  without 
that  security. 

The  contest  between  Archbishop  Parker  and  the  Puri- 
tans, growing  continually  more  acrimonious,  and  opening 
to  the  discontented  party  a  wider  range  of  inquiry  and 
speculation,  was  terminated  before  long  by  the  death  of 
1575      that  able  prelate.     The  accession  of  Grindal  to 

May  17.  ^.j-^g  priuiacy,  and  of  Sandys  to  the  archiepiscopal 
Archbishop  see  of  York,  both  of  whom  proved  to  be  men  of 
moderate  temper  and  principles,  encouraged  the 
friends  of  further  reform ;  and  the  danger  of  a  Catholic 
succession  in  case  of  the  queen's  death  deterred  the  Prot- 
estant statesmen  from  outraging  a  party  to  which  the 
Protestant  cause  might  presently  have  to  look  for  defence, 
and  which,  counting  its  adherents  and  its  well-wishers 
together,  was  now  probably  the  most  numerous,  as  it  was 
certainly  the  most  resolute  and  active,  of  the  three  parties 
into  which  Englishmen  were  distributed.^ 

At  Grindal's  death,  the  austere  Whitgift  was  taken  from 
1583      the  cloisters  of  Trinity  College,  and  from  a  nar- 

sept.23.    j.Q^y  and  absolute  rule  over  gownsmen,  to  be  the 

Accession  of  «  .         ^r^,-, 

Archbishop  first  peer  of  England,  and  governor  of  its  Church. 
"^' ''  The  appointment  indicated  the  queen's  resolution 
to  keep  terms  with  dissentients  no  longer.  "Whitgift  had 
been  formerly  a  friend  of  Cartwright,  and  lately  a  bitter 
adversary.  Nothing  could  have  been  more  welcome  to 
him  than  the  royal  command  to  "take  resolute  order "^ 

^  Ilallam,  Constitutional  History,  116.  2  gtrypc,  Life  of  Whitgift,  121. 


IS  severe 
eedinss. 


Chap.  III.]  PURITANISM  IN  ENGLAND.  121 

for  enforcing  the  discipline  of  the  Church,  and  the  uni- 
formity established  by  law.  And  in  the  week  of  his 
consecration,  he  issued  instructions  to  the  bishops  ^ 
of  his  province  to  forbid  and  prevent  preaching,  '"■'"' 
catechizing,  and  praying  in  any  private  family,  in  the 
presence  of  persons  not  belonging  to  it,  and  to  silence 
all  preachers  and  catechists  who  had  not  received  orders 
from  episcopal  hands,  or  who  refused  or  neglected  to  read 
the  whole  service,  or  to  wear  the  prescribed  clerical  hab- 
it, or  to  subscribe  to  the  queen's  supremacy,  the  Thirty- 
Nine  Articles,  and  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer. 

The  Puritans  had  counted  the  cost.  The  queen  and 
the  new  primate  designed  no  vain  threat,  and  in  Whit- 
gift's  first  year  two  hundred  and  thirty-three  ministers 
were  suspended  in  six  counties  of  the  province  of  Canter- 
bury. By  the  Act  of  Supremacy  in  the  first  year  of  her 
reign,  the  sovereign  had  been  authorized  to  appoint  a 
"  Court  of  High  Commission,"  with  power  "  to  visit,  re- 
form, redress,  order,  correct,  and  amend  all  errors,  her- 
esies, schisms,  abuses,  contempts,  offences,  and  enormities 
whatsoever."  That  act  recognized  th,e  head  of  the  State 
as  at  the  same  time  the  head  of  the  Church  ;  and  the  High 
Commission  Court  was  the  royal  tribunal  for  legal  admin- 
istration in  ecclesiastical  aff"airs,  as  the  courts  in  Westmin- 
ster Hall  were  for  administration  in  matters  of  a  civil 
nature.     Whit^ift  received  the  queen's  direction 

.  i  .  .  1584. 

to  put  this  tremendous  engme  of  despotism  into 
active  service. 

Forty-four  commissioners,  of  whom  twelve  were  bish- 
ops, were  empowered  to  take  cognizance  of  all  constitution 
offences  against  the  Acts  of  Supremacy  and  Uni-  commission 
formity ;  to  make  inquisition  respecting  heretical  ^°""' 
opinions,  seditious  books,  contempts,  conspiracies,  false 
rumors  or  talks,  and  slanderous  words  and  sayings,  for- 
bidden by  those  acts ;  to  punish  persons  absenting  them- 
selves from  church ;   to  deprive  clergymen   holding  doc- 

VOL.  I.  11 


122  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

trines  contrary  to  the  Thirty-Nine  Articles ;  to  examine 
suspected  persons  on  oath ;  to  amend  the  statutes  of  col- 
leges, cathedrals,  and  schools ;  and  to  exact  and  adminis- 
ter tlie  oath  of  supremacy.  Clergymen  suspected  of  Puri- 
tanism were  examined  under  oath  by  a  series  of  questions, 
which  Burleigh  characterized  as  "  so  curiously  penned,  so 
full  of  branches  and  circumstances,  as  he  thought  the  in- 
quisitors of  Spain  used  not  so  many  questions  to  compre- 
hend and  to  trap  their  preys."  ^  But  the  prelate  had  the 
queen  and  the  law  on  his  side,  and  the  cautious  states- 
man's discontent  effected  nothing.  By  an  "  Act  for  the 
Punishment  of  Persons  obstinately  refusing  to 
come  to  Church,"  it  was  provided  that  such  as 
should  absent  themselves  for  a  month,  or  dissuade  others 
"  from  coming  to  church  to  hear  divine  service  or  receive 
the  communion  according  as  the  law  directs,  or  be  present 
at  any  unlawful  assembly,  conventicle,  or  meeting,  under 
color  or  pretence  of  any  exercise  of  religion,"  should 
be  imprisoned  till  they  should  make  a  prescribed  decla- 
ration of  conformity,  and,  in  default  of  such  declaration, 
should  go  into  perpetual  banishment,  under  penalty  of 
death  if  they  were  found  within  the  realm.  The  law  of 
England  declared  England  to  be  uninhabitable  by  Non- 
conformists. 

The  public  manifestation  of  Puritanism,  as  an  element 

in  church  politics,  is  properly  enough  considered  to  have 

taken  place  when  Hooper  refused  to  be  conse- 

3550.  ,      .  ,  1        •  •       1  T         Ti 

crated  ni  the  ecclesiastical  vestments,  in  like 
manner  Non-con  for  mi  tu  takes  its  date  from  the 
refusal  of  Bishop  Coverdale  and  other   eminent 

churchmen  to  subscribe  to  the  Liturgy  and  ceremonies. 

Separatism  followed  immediately  after,  when  several  of 
the   deprived  ministers,   "  seeing  they   could  not 

Eisoofsep-  have  the  word  freely  preached,  and  the  sacra- 
ments administered  without  idolatrous  gear, 

1  Strj'pe,  Life  of  Wbitglft,  157,  IGO. 


Chap.  III.]  PURITANISM  IN  ENGLAND.  123 

concluded  to   break  off  from   the  public   churches,   and 
separate  in  private  houses."^ 

This  was  schism,  which  Puritanism  and  Non-conformity 
alone  were  not.  Four  years  before  the  appointment  of 
Whitgift's  High  Commission  Court,  the  great  controversy 
of  the  time  had  assumed  a  new  phase  and  made  a  further 
advance.  Hobert  Brown,  a  man  of  honorable  de-  j^go. 
scent,   a  clere^yman   of  the  diocese  of  Norwich,  ^'''"'" 

'  OJ  '     Brown 

took  to  travelling  about  the  country,  declaiminsj  and  the 

...  .  ty        -I         Brownists. 

against  the  discipline  and  ceremonies  of  the 
Church,  and  calling  upon  the  people  to  come  out  and  be 
separate,  and  not  touch  the  unclean  thing.  In  many 
places,  he  found  ready  listeners.  After  a  long  struggle, 
in  the  course  of  which,  as  he  afterwards  boasted,  he  had 
"  been  committed  to  thirty-two  prisons,  in  some  of  which 
he  could  not  see  his  hand  at  noonday,"^  he  withdrew  with 
some  followers  to  Middleburg,  in  Zealand,  where  they  es- 
tablished a  cono:reffation.     It  was  dissolved  after 

»       ^  1589. 

a  few  years,  and  Brown  returned  to  England, 
where,  perhaps  under  the  influence  of  his  relative,  Lord 
Burleigh,  he  conformed  to  the  Established  Church,  and 
was  beneficed.  He  fell  into  irregular  habits,  and  died  at 
an  advanced  age.  He  takes  a  place  in  history  from  his 
connection  with  a  great  religious  movement,  which  he  by 
no  means  originated,  and  which  he  did  quite  as  much  to 
prejudice  as  to  promote.  From  him  the  rigid  separatists 
from  the  Church  of  England,  who  advocated  the  inde- 
pendence of  each  Christian  congregation  in  respect  to  all 
others,  were  nicknamed  Brownists. 

The    temper    of   the    Archbishop,    who    survived   the 
queen,  was  too  stern,  and  the  measures  of  the   py,,i^j,^g„j 
High  Commission  Court  were  too  eners^etic,   to  ofseparat- 
admit  of  opposition,  except  from  such  as   were 
prepared  for  ruin.      A  fair  proportion  of  such   persons 
appeared.     There  were  some  capital  punishments.     Two 

1  Strype,  Life  of  Parker,  242.  2  Marsden,  History  of  the  Early  Puritans,  141. 


124  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

men,  named  Thacker  and  Copping,  were  hanged 
for  circulating  a  tract  written  by  Brown ;  the 
heroic  John  Udal  died  in  prison,  under  sentence 

1590.  f      T         ^       r  t     • 

of  death  tor  a  rehgious  treatise  indicted  as  a 
libel ;  ^  Barrow,  a  gentleman  of  Gray's  Inn,  and  Green- 
wood and  Penry,  ministers  of  London,  were  condemned 

and  executed  for  writino^s   of  the  same  descrip- 

1592,  1593.        -IT  in 

tion,  —  the  last-named  for  an  unpublished  com- 
position found  among  his  papers.  There  were  other  in- 
stances of  capital  punishment  for  like  transgressions, 
and  many  instances  of  long  imprisonment  and  ruinous 
fines.  But  for  the  most  part  the  ecclesiastical  history 
of  the  last  twenty  years  of  Queen  Elizabeth's  reign  re- 
cords only  the  suppression  of  open  manifestations  of  dis- 
sent from  the  state  Church,  and  the  intelligent  and  steady 

jrrowth  of  dissent  in   secret.     The  crisis  of  the 


1588. 


to' 


Spanish  war  excited  a  universal  ardor  of  loyalty, 
strongest  among  those  in  whom  the  anti-Catholic  feeling 
was  most  intense,  while  in  return  it  prompted  all  the 
gratitude  and  tenderness,  towards  all  classes  of  a  united 
people,  of  which  the  queen  was  capable.  Her  clemency, 
which  had  at  no  time  gone  beyond  connivance,  passed 
away,  indeed,  as  soon  as  the  worst  of  the  danger  was  over ; 
and  the  most  cruel  legislative  measure  of  her  reign  against 
Non-conformists  was  taken  four  years  after  the  defeat  of 
the  Armada.  But  as  she  grew  old,  and  the  succession  of 
a  Presbyterian  king  was  looked  for,  opposition  and  perse- 
cution both  were  checked ;  the  former  from  anticipation 
of  a  peaceable  relief  from  existing  grievances,  the  latter 
from  a  salutary  fear,  on  the  part  of  courtiers,  of  the  retal- 
iation which  it  might  provoke.^ 

'  "  A    Domonstration   of  tlic    Disci-  Cross    Stroot,    London,    I  fell   upon   a 

j)line  wliich  Christ  hath  proscribed  in  curious  collection,  in  tliree  manuscript 

Lis  Woi'd  for  IIk;  Government  of  the  volumes,  of  old  letters  and  various  otlier 

Church  in  all  Times  and  Places  untill  pieces.     Among  them  arc  two  papers 

the  World's  End."  entitled,  respectively,  "Lamentable  Es- 

2  hi  Dr.  AVilllams's  Library,  in  lied-  tale  of  the  Ministers  in  StafFordshire," 


Chap.  III.] 


PURITANISM  IN   ENGLAND. 


125 


In  the  progress  through  the  House  of  Commons  of  the 
act  "  for  reclucmg  disloyal  subjects  to  their  ohe-      ^^^ 
dience,"    Sir   Walter  Raleigh  had    said,  "I    am 
afraid  there  is  near  twenty  thousand  Brownists  in  Eng- 


and  "  View  of  the  State  of  the  Churches 
in  Cornwall."  The  former  is  without 
date,  but  I  believe  there  can  be  no 
hesitation  about  referring  it  to  the  latter 
half  of  the  reign  of  Elizabeth.  It  con- 
sists of  a  full  list  of  Staffordshire  par- 
ishes, with  the  names  and  ch'aracters 
of  their  ministers  attached.  It  closes 
with  this  summary  :  "  So  that  there 
be  118  congregations  which  have  no 
preacher,  neither  have  had  (for  the 
most)  now  more  than  forty  years; 
there  be  18  congregations  served  by 
laymen,  by  scandalous,  40."  "  Lewd," 
"  a  bad  liver,"  "  of  scandalous  life," 
"very  ignorant,"  "drunkard,"  "  a  com- 
mon drunkard,"  "  a  grievous  swearer," 
"  of  a  loose  life,"  "  a  mere  worldling," 
"  a  gamester,"  are  entries  continually 
occurring  against  the  clerical  names. 
One  minister  is  "  a  weaver,"  having 
been  "a  gentleman's  .household  servant 
many  years  " ;  one  is  "  very  famous  for 
his  skill  in  gaming,  and  especially  in 
bowling."  The  Cornwall  record,  which 
bears  the  date  of  158G,  has  such  descrip- 
tions of  the  clergymen  named  in  it  as 
these :  "  a  man  careless  of  his  calling," 
"  a  very  lewd  man,"  "  a  dicer,"  "  a  very 
lewd  fellow,"  "  a  pot-companion,"  "  a 
good  dicer  and  carder  both  night  and 
day,"  "  a  common  alehouse-haunter  and 
gamester,"  "  his  conversation  is  most  in 
hounds,"  "  he  was  lately  a  serving-man." 
One  is  qualified  as  "  a  common  dicer 
and  burned  in  the  hand  for  felony,  and 
full  of  all  iniquity  " ;  one  is  "  the  best 
wrestler  in  Cornwall";  another,  "a  very 
bad  man."  Very  few  are  favorably 
represented.  The  document  does  not 
furnish  the  means  of  ascertaining  its 
history.  But  the  particularity  of  its 
statements,  in  their  appropriate  columns, 
11* 


of  the  population  of  the  places  specified, 
the  value  of  the  cures,  the  names  of 
patrons,  &c.,  indicate  that  it  was  made 
by  intelligent  and  responsible  persons. 
There  is  also  a  petition  of  the  same 
period  from  the  people  of  Cornwall  to 
the  Parliament  "  gathered  together  by 
the  Queen's  Majesty's  appointment  to 
look  to  the  wants,  to  behold  the  miseries, 
the  ruins,  decays,  and  dissolutions  of  the 
Church  of  God  and  Commonwealth  of 
the  Realm  of  England."  The  petition- 
ers say :  "  We  have  about  eight  score 
churches,  the  greatest  part  of  which 
places  is  supplied  by  men  who,  through 
their  ignorance  and  negligence,  are 
guilty  of  the  sin  of  sins,  of  the  sin  of 
soul-murder Some  ai'e  forni- 
cators, some  adulterers,  some  felons, 
bearing  the  marks  in  their  hands  for  the 

same  offence, some  drunkards, 

some  quarrellers,  some  spotted  with 
whoredom,  and  some  with  more  loathe 
some  and  abominable  crimes  than  these." 
Such  representations  confii'm  the 
complaints  Avhich  reach  us  from  that 
time,  through  various  channels,  of  the 
wretched  provision  Avhich  remained  for 
the  service  of  the  churches,  when  hun- 
dreds of  exemplary  clergymen  were 
displaced  by  the  Act  of  Uniformity. 
I  presume  that  they  are  to  be  connect- 
ed with  the  memorials  which  in  1584 
came  up  to  the  Privy  Council,  and  in 
158G  to  Parliament,  from  Lincoln,  Kent, 
Oxford,  Suffolk,  Essex,  Norfolk,  Cam- 
bridge, and  other  counties,  setting  forth 
the  mischief  done  by  the  enforcement 
of  that  act.  (See  Neal,  History  of  the 
Puritans,  Chap.  VII.  Marsden,  90, 123, 
157,  et  neq.)  According  to  Neal  (His- 
tory of  the  Puritans,  Chap.  VII.),  a 
"  survey,"  laid  at  this  time  before  Par- 


12(5  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

land."^  Some  of  the  principal  Separatist  ministers,  with 
companies  of  their  followers,  had  withdrawn  to  Amster- 
En.igration  ^^m  and  othcr  cities  of  the  United  Provinces, 
to  Holland,  ^vi^ere  the  success  of  the  insurrection  against 
Spain  had  provided  an  asyliun  for  Protestants. 

The  accession  of  James  the  Sixth  of  Scotland  to  the 

throne   of  the    sister   kingdom    was    generally    regarded 

1503       as    an    event    auspicious    to    the    friends    of   re- 

March.     ligious  rcform,  though  the  Catholics  too  were  not 

Accession  of         o  '  o 

King  James  without  agreeable  expectations  from  the  son  of  a 
queen  whose  cause  they  had  assiduously  served 
through  such  a  season  of  storms.  He  had  been  bred  in 
the  straitest  sect  of  Calvinism  and  presbytery ;  after  com- 
ing to  man's  estate,  he  had  subscribed  the  Book  of  Disci- 
pline of  the  Kirk  ;  in  the  disputations  of  which  he  was  so 
fond,  he  had  been  the  ostentatious  champion  of  the  most 
anti-prclatical  dogmas  of  the  Continental  churches ;  and 
up  to  the  mature  age  of  thirty-six,  at  which  he  had  now 
arrived,  he  had  given  little  reason  to  suspect  the  sincerity 
of  his  professions  of  attachment  to  the  religious  settlement 
of  his  native  kingdom.^      But  his  constitutional  love  of 

liament,  rcprosontpcl  that,  "after  twenty-  tionerl  are  entered  in  the  Catalogue,  if 
eight  years'  estabhyhment  of  the  Church  the  memorandum  -which  I  made  is  cor- 
of  England,  there  were  only  2,000  rect,  at  page  14  (11).  I  am  glad  of  an 
preachers  to  serve  near  10.000  parish  opportunity  to  express  my  gratitude  to 
churches."  The  Privy  Counsellors  the  estimable  librarian,  Mr.  Cogan,  for 
were  much  disturbed,  and  remonstrated  afibrding  me  every  facility  for  the  ex- 
with  the  primate  in  a  paper  bearing  amination  of  the  treasures  in  his  charge, 
such  signatures  as  those  of  Burleigh,  i  Townshend,  Account  of  the  Pro- 
Warwick,  Ilatton,  Leicester,  and  Wal-  ceedings  of  the  Four  Last  Parliaments 
singham.  (.Stryi)e,Lifeof  Whitgift,lGG.)  of  (Jueen  Elizabeth,  7G. 
But  they  wasted  tlieir  labor.  Elizabeth  2  J,,  1^88,  in  a  speech  to  the  Scottish 
and  Whitgift  had  their  minds  made  up.  Parliament,  he  said  that  "  he  minded 
"  Dr.  Williams's  Library  "  was  found-  not  to  bring  in  Papistical  or  Anglicane 
cd  and  endowed  by  Dr.  Daniel  Williams,  bishops."  In  the  General  Assembly  at 
a  Presbyterian  minister,  who  died  in  Edinburgh,  in  1590,  he  praised  God 
London  in  1716.  Its  twenty  thousand  that  he  was  "born  in  the  time  of  the 
printed  volumes,  and  numerous  valua-  light  of  the  Gospel,  and  in  such  a  place 
ble  manuscripts,  contain  rich  materials  as  to  be  king  of  such  a  Cimrch,  the  sin- 

for  the  history  of  Non-conformity  and     cerest  Church  in  the  wni-ld As 

Dissent.    The  papers  which  I  have  men-  for  our  neighbor  Ivirk  of  England,  their 


Chap.  IU.]  PURITANISM  IN  ENGLANT).  127 

despotic  rnle,  the  idiocy  of  feeble,  as  it  is  the  frenzy  of 
strong  minds,  was  forced  at  once  into  morbid  activity  by 
the  sudden  escape  from  restraints  which  at  home  had 
vexed  him  from  his  cradle.  Perhaps  a  congenital  obliqui- 
ty, due  to  the  unnatural  relation  between  his  parents, 
may  be  assumed  to  explain  and  palliate  the  portentous 
absurdities  of  his  character  and  career.  It  was  by  no 
means  owing  alone  to  a  figure  and  presence  singularly 
effectual  to  excite  contempt,  that,  invested  when  he  left 
Scotland  with  an  unbounded  popularity  on  the  part  of 
his  English  subjects,  he  is  said  to  have  lost  it  all  before 
he  arrived  at  London.  His  impatience  to  play  the  tyrant 
brooked  not  the  delay  which  would  have  made  his  fantas- 
tic tyranny  appear  less  indecent.^ 

In  his  progress  to  the  capital,  he  received  the  Millena- 
ry Petition,  signed  by  more  than  eight  hundred  TheiMniena- 
clergymen  belonging  to  twenty-five  counties.  It  ""y^^""""- 
represented,  that  "  neither  as  factious  men  affecting  a 
popular  party  in  the  Church,  nor  as  schismatics  aiming 
at  the  dissolution  of  the  state  ecclesiastical,  but  as  the 
faithful  ministers  of  Christ  and  loyal  subjects  to  his  Ma- 
jesty, they  humbly  desired  the  redress  of  some  abuses." 
In  respect  to  the  Church  service,  they  prayed  for  a  dis- 
continuance of  the  use  of  the  cap  and  surplice,  of  the  ring 
in  marriage,  of  the  cross  in  baptism,  of  the  rite  of  con- 
firmation, and  of  the  reading  of  the  Apocryphal  books ; 
for  an  abridgment  of  the  Liturgy,  and  a  more  edifying 

service  is  an  evil-said  mass  in  English.  James  had  "  thanked  God  that  he  had 

They  want  nothing  of  the  mass  but  the  settled  both  kirk  and  kingdom,  and  left 

liftings.     I  charge  you,  my  good  minis-  them  in  that  estate  which  he  intended 

ters,  doctors,  elders,  nobles,  gentlemen,  not  to  hurt  or  alter  anyways."     (Cal- 

and   barons,  to  stand  to  your  purity,  derwood,  History  of  the  Church  of  Scot- 

and  to  exhort   the   people   to   do  the  land,  473.) 

same ;   and  I,   forsooth,   as   long  as   I         l  "  I  hear  our  new  king  hath  hanged 

brook  my  life,  shall  maintain  the  same."  one   man   before   he  was  tried.     'T  is 

The  Baaik^Kov  Acopov  indeed,  printed  strangely    done.      Now    if   the    wind 

in  ICOO,  contains  matter  of  a  different  bloweth  thus,  why  may  not  a  man  be 

tenor.     But  it  was  little  known ;  and,  tried  before  he  has  offended  ?  "    (Har- 

on   leaving    Edinburgh    for    England,  rington,  Nugae  Antiquae,  I.  180.) 


128  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

Style  of  sacred  music ;  for  a  stricter  observance  of  the 
Lord's  day ;  and  for  dispensation  from  the  observance  of 
other  holidays,  and  from  the  rule  to  bow  at  the  name  of 
Jesus.  They  asked  that  none  but  able  men  should  be 
admitted  to  the  ministry,  and  that  ministers  should  be 
required  to  reside  in  their  parishes  and  to  preach  on  the 
Lord's  day.  They  entreated  to  be  relieved  from  all  sub- 
scriptions except  that  required  by  law,  which  covered 
only  the  articles  relating  to  doctrine  and  to  the  royal  su- 
premacy. They  proposed  other  measures  of  reform  and 
security,  but  nothing  adverse  to  the  episcopal  government 
as  legally  established.  And  they  concluded  by  saying  of 
the  matters  of  which  they  complained :  "  These  things  we  ' 
are  able  to  show  not  to  be  agreeable  to  the  word  of  God, 
if  it  shall  please  your  Majesty  to  hear  us,  or  by  writing 
to  be  informed,  or  by  conference  among  the  learned  to  be 
resolved." 

The  foolish  king's  first  puerile  elation  at  his  great  ad- 
vancement was  not  over,  when  he  published  a  proclama- 

1Q03.  tion  "  touching  a  meeting  for  the  hearing  and 
Oct.  24.  £q^.  ^Yie  determining  things  pretended  to  be  amiss 
in  the  Church."  The  friends  of  the  existing  ecclesiastical 
order  had  lost  no  time  in  approaching  and  studying  him, 
and  that  they  were  installed  in  his  confidence  was  made 
evident  by  the  terms  of  the  proclamation.  He  announced 
therein  his  persuasion,  "  that  the  constitution  of  the 
Church  of  England  was  agreeable  to  God's  word,  and 
near  to  the  condition  of  the  primitive  Church  " ;  and  he 
"  commanded  all  his  subjects  not  to  publish  anything 
against  the  state  ecclesiastical,  or  to  gather  subscriptions 
or  make  supplications,  being  resolved  to  make  it  appear 
by  their  chastisement  how  far  such  a  manner  of  proceed- 
ing was  disagreeable  to  him ;  for  he  was  determined  to 
preserve  the  ecclesiastical  state  in  such  form  as  he  found 
it  established  by  law,  only  to  reform  such  abuses  as 
should  be  apparently  proved." 


Chap.  III.]  PURITANISM  IN  ENGLAND.  129 

In  the  sad  comedy  of  the  conference  held  at  the  palace 
of  Hampton   Court,   the  khig  was  chief  actor. 

\  ^  .  Theconfer- 

The  Puritan  cause  was  represented  by  four  mm-  ence  at 
isters,  of  whom  the  j^rincipal,  Dr.  Keynolds,  was  cm"rr°" 
reputed  to  be  unsurpassed  in  scholarship  by  any  j^^^^'^^^'^q  ^^ 
man  in  England.  On  the  other  side  were  nine 
bishops  and  eight  other  Church  dignitaries.  The  re- 
quests presented  by  the  ministers  embraced  four  matters : 
"  1.  That  the  doctrine  of  the  Church  might  be  preserved 
pure,  according  to  God's  word;  2.  That  good  pastors 
might  be  planted  in  all  churches,  to  preach  in  the  same ; 
3.  That  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  might  be  fitted  to 
more  increase  of  piety ;  4.  That  Church  government 
might  be  sincerely  ministered  according  to  God's  word." 
The  first  day's  conference  was  between  the  king  and  a 
select  i^arty  of  the  bishops  and  deans.  Through  the  last 
two  days  the  ministers  were  browbeaten  by  the  coarse 
annoyance  of  Bancroft,  Bishop  of  London,  and  msulted 
by  the  king  with  indecent  jesting. 

The  deportment  of  James  on  this  occasion  struck  the 
High-Church  spectators  with  joyful  surprise.  Whitgift, 
who,  now  past  the  age  of  threescore  and  ten,  had  left  the 
chief  management  of  his  cause  in  younger  hands,  was 
impelled  to  exclaim,  "  Your  Majesty  speaks  by  the  special 
assistance  of  God's  spirit " ;  and  Bancroft  fell  upon  his 
knees  and  said,  "  I  protest  my  heart  melteth  for  joy,  that 
Almighty  God,  of  his  singular  mercy,  has  given  us  such 
a  king  as  since  Christ's  time  has  not  been."  "  No  bishop, 
no  king,"  was  the  apothegm  in  which  the  monarch  ex- 
pressed at  once  the  gratuitous  fixedness  of  his  determi- 
nation respecting  the  hierarchy,  which  was  not  assailed, 
and  the  nature  of  the  argument  which  had  satisfied  his 
mind.  As  to  indulgence  to  private  consciences,  "  I  will 
have,"  said  he,  "  one  doctrine,  one  discipline,  one  religion 
in  substance  and  ceremony;  never  speak  more  to  that 
point,  how  far  you  are  bound  to  obey."     He  ended  the 


130  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

second  day's  conference  by  telling  Dr.  Reynolds,  "  If  this 
be  all  your  party  have  to  say,  I  will  make  them  conform, 
or  I  Mill  harry  them  out  of  this  land,  or  else  worse."  The 
third  day  manifested  no  improvement  of  his  temper  or  his 
manners.  "  I  will  have  none  of  this  arguing ;  therefore 
let  them  conform,  and  that  quickly  too,  or  they  shall  hear 
of  it;  the  bishops  will  give  them  some  time,  but  if  any 
are  of  an  obstinate  and  turbulent  spirit,  I  will  have  them 
enforced  to  conformity."  ^  In  a  letter  to  a  Scottish  friend, 
he  boasted  that  he  had  "  kept  such  a  revel  with  the  Puri- 
tans these  two  days,  as  was  never  heard  the  like ;  where 
I  have  peppered  them  as  soundly  as  ye  have  done  the 
Papists They  fled  me  so  from  argument  to  ar- 
gument, without  ever  answering  me  directly,  as  I  was 
forced  at  last  to  say  unto  them,  that  if  any  of  them  had 
been  in  a  college  disputing  with  their  scholars,  if  any  of 
their  disciples  had  answered  them  in  that  sort,  they  would 
have  fetched  him  up  in  place  of  a  reply ;  and  so  should 
the  rod  have  plyed  upon  the  poor  boys."  ^ 

An  edition  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  was  pres- 
ently   published,    containing    some    trifling   amendments, 
and   accompanied   by   a  proclamation   in  which 

March  5  i.  •/  i. 

the  king  required  all  his  subjects  to  conform  to 
the  prescribed  ritual  and  discipline,  "  as  the  only  public 
form  established  in  this  realm,"  and  admonished  them  not 

1  Barlow,  Dean  of  Chester,  printed  other  account  of  the  Conference,  by 
an  account  of  the  Hampton  Court  Con-  Harrington  (Nugae  Antiqua^,  I.  181), 
ference.  A  copy  is  in  the  Hbrary  of  the  royal  buffoon  appears  to  even 
Harvard  College.  Reynolds  and  his  greater  disadvantage  than  in  Barlow's, 
associates  complained  that  it  represent-  "  Tlie  king rather  used  upbraid- 
ed them  unfairly.  But  there  was  much  ings  than  argument,  and  told  the  pe- 
discontent  among  the  Puritan  ministers  titioners  that  they  wanted  to  strip 
at  what  they  thought  a  timid  and  inef-  Christ  again,  and  bid  them  away  with 

firient  defence  of  their  cause.     Some     their  snivelling Tlie  bishops 

of  them,  while  they  disputed  the  cor-  said  his  ]\Iajosty  spoke  by  the  power 
rectnessof  Barlow's  report,  made  known  of  inspiration.  I  wist  not  what  they 
their  desire  for  another  hearing  for  rea-  mean  ;  but  the  spirit  was  rather  foul- 
sons  which  implied  that  that  report  was  mouthed."  Yet  Harrington  was  a  stout 
not  altogether  unjust.  But  no  notice  anti-Puritan. 
was  taken  of  their  proposal.      In  an-  ^  Str}pe,Lireof Whitgift, App.!No.46. 


Chap.  HI.]  PURITANISM  IN  ENGLAND.  131 

to  expect  any  further  alterations,  inasmuch  as  his  resolu- 
tions were  unchangeable.  The  proclamation  was  followed 
up  by  the  committal  to  prison  of  ten  of  the  subscribers 
of  the  Millenary  Petition,  and  by  a  declaration  of  the 
Council,  that  "  thus  combining  in  a  cause  against  which 
the  king  had  showed  his  mislike,  both  by  public  act  and 
proclamation,  was  little  less  than  treason"^ 

In  less  than  a  year,  the  prospect  had  been  completely 
changed.    The  friends  of  religious  reform  in  Eng- 

>-'  .  Gloomy  pros- 

land  had  never  seen  so  hopeless  a  time  as  that  pectofthe 
which  so  soon  followed  the  time  of  their  most 
sanguine  expectation.  In  the  gloomiest  periods  of  the 
arbitrary  sway  of  the  two  daughters  of  Henry  the  Eighth, 
they  could  turn  their  eyes  to  a  probable  successor  to  the 
throne,  who  would  be  capable  of  more  reason  or  more 
lenity.  Now,  nothing  better  for  them  appeared  in  the 
future,  than  the  probably  long  reign  of  a  prince  wrong- 
headed  and  positive  alike  from  imbecility,  prejudice, 
pique,  and  self-conceit,  —  to  be  succeeded  by  a  line  of 
others,  born  to  the  inheritance  of  the  same  bad  blood, 
and  educated  in  the  same  preposterous  principles.  It  is 
true  that,  as  history  reveals  the  facts  to  us,  almost  with 
the  reign  of  the  Scottish  alien  that  better  spirit  began  to 
penetrate  the  English  Parliament  which  ultimately  drove 
his  noxious  family  into  perpetual  exile.  But,  as  yet,  the 
steady  reaction  from  old  abuses  was  but  dimly  apparent 
even  to  the  most  clear-sighted  and  hopeful  minds ;  and 
numbers  of  devout  and  brave  men  gave  way  to  the  con- 
viction, that,  for  such  as  they,  England  was  ceasing  for 
ever  to  be  a  habitable  place,  and  were  considering  to  what 
part  of  the  world  they  might  escape  to  secure  freedom  of 
belief  and  Avorship,  and  build  up  a  community  worthy 
of  the  English  name.  Many  passed  over  at  once  to  the 
Low  Countries,  while  others  for  the  present  sought  a 
precarious   safety  in   concealment,   and   awaited   a  more 

1  Winwood,  Memorials  of  Affairs  of  State,  &c.,  II.  3G,  48,  49. 


132  HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

convenient   season   for   some  more  effectual  measure   of 
relief 

Six  weeks  after  his  great  triumph  at  the  Hampton 
Court  Conference,  Whitgift  died,  and  Bancroft,  Bishop  of 
Bancroft  Loudou,  a  mau  equally  arbitrary,  more  enterpris- 
^(l^tliet"^  ing  by  reason  of  his  fewer  years,  more  sycophan- 
*""'•  tic  on  the  one  hand  and  more  offensive  on  the 

other,  succeeded  to  the  primacy.     He  at  once  followed 
up  with  unswerving  rigor  the  advantage  supplied  by  the 
king's  conversion.   In  the  convocation  which  soon  after  met, 
he  procured  a  ratification  of  a  Book  of  Canons  ^  of 

1C04.  ,   ^ 

his  own  composition.  Its  one  hundred  and  forty- 
one  articles  embodied  the  loftiest  pretensions  of  the  Estab- 
lished Church,  and  submission  to  them  was  challenged 
under  penalties  of  deprivation  for  the  clergy,  and  excom- 
munication, imprisonment,  and  outlawry  alike  for  clergy 
and  laity.  The  number  of  Non-conformist  clergymen  in 
England  and  Wales  at  this  time  is  believed  to  have  ex- 
ceeded fifteen  hundred.  For  further  security  against  the 
spread  of  dissent,  the  importation  of  religious  books  from 
the  Continent  was  prohibited,  and  printing  in  England 
was  subjected  to  the  censorship  of  the  bishops.  With 
such  extreme  jealousy  was  Non-conformist  preaching  re- 
garded, that  a  man  made  himself  liable  to  fine  and  im- 
prisonment by  repeating  to  his  family  the  substance  of 
sermons  which  he  had  heard  at  church.  Numbers  more 
of  recusant  ministers  were  silenced  or  deprived;^  some 
were  sent  to  prison ;  and  others  escaped  abroad. 

1  It  was  in  these   Canons  that  the  the  Churchmen  in  occupying  the  ground 

divine  right  of  episcopacy  was  first  as-  of  Scriptural  authority  in  defence  of  their 

serted  in  the  Enghsh  Church,  having  pohty. 

been  defended  hitherto  on  the  ground  2  Neal  says,  "  above  three  hundred." 

of  its  being  an  orderly  system,  to  the  (History  of  the  Puritans,  II.  64.     His- 

institution  of  which  the  authority  of  the  tory  of  New    England,   I.   71.)      See 

Church    was   competent.       Cartwright  also  Calderwood,  Altare  Damascenum, 

and  other  Presbyterians  had  anticipated  Praef. 


CHAPTEE  IV. 

Among  the  congregations  of  Separatists  which  had 
been  formed  while  dissension  was  active  in  the  bosom  of 
the  Church,  were  two  near  the  northeastern  corner  of 
Nottinghamshire.  One  was  gathered  at  Gainsborough, 
just  within  the  western  border  of  the  county  of  Lincohi. 
The  other  held  its  meetings  at  a  village  named  congregation 
Scrooby,-^  in  Nottinghamshire,  near  to  the  point  ^^^"""^y- 
where  it  touches  the  counties  of  Lincoln  and  York.     Of 


1  For  the  recent  discovery  of  this 
fact,  which  with  its  relations  is  so  inter- 
esting, New  England  history  is  indebted 
to  the  Rev.  Joseph  Hunter,  an  assist- 
ant keeper  of  Her  Majesty's  Records. 
(Collections  concerning  the  Church  or 
Congregation  of  Protestant  Separatists 
formed  at  Scrooby,  &c.  London,  1854.) 
Morton  (New  England's  Memorial,  Da- 
vis's edition,  1 7)  and  Mather  (Magnalia 
Christi  Americana,  Book  I.  Chap.  H. 
§  1)  had  told  no  more  than  that  the 
Leyden  congregation  came  from  "  the 
North  of  England,"  except  that  Mather 
(Ibid.,  Book  II.  Chap.  I.  §  1)  implies 
that  they  were  of  Yorkshire,  and  says 
that  Bradford  was  born  in  "  Ansterfield," 
a  place  which  has  been  sought  by  some 
generations  of  New  England  antiqua- 
ries in  vain,  and  in  fact  is  not  known  in 
English  geography.  Prince  (Chrono- 
logical History,  99),  quoting  from  Brad- 
ford's History  (afterwards  lost  and  very 
lately  recovered),  described  them  as 
having  "  lived  near  the  joining  borders 
of  Nottinghamshire,  Lincolnshire,  and 
Yorkshire";  and  according  to  a  state- 
ment in  a  portion  of  Bradford's  His- 
tory, preserved  in  the  records  of  the 

VOL.  I.  12 


Plymouth  church  (Young,  Chronicles 
of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  4G5),  "they 
ordinarily  met  at  his  [Brewster's]  house 
on  the  Lord's  day,  which  was  a  manor 
of  the  bishop's."  At  Scrooby,  In  the 
hundred  of  Basset  Lawe,  a  mile  and  a 
half  southeast  of  the  market  town  of 
Bawtry,  Mr.  Hunter  finds  that  there 
was  at  that  period  a  manor,  "  an  ancient 
possession  and  occasional  residence  of 
the  Archbishop  of  York,"  and  "the  only 
episcopal  manor  that  was  near  the  bor- 
ders of  the  three  counties."  In  the  As- 
sessment of  Subsidies  granted  by  Parlia- 
ment In  1571,  he  meets  with  a  rate  of 
"  William  Brewster,  of  the  township  of 
Scrooby  cum  Ranskil "  ;  and  he  learns 
that,  In  April,  1608,  William  Brewster 
and  two  others,  "  of  Scrooby,  Brown- 
ists  or  Separatists,"  were  fined  by  the 
Commissioners  for  Ecclesiastical  Causes 
for  non-appearance  to  a  citation.  The 
missing  "  Ansterfield,"  the  birthplace  of 
Bradford,  according  to  Mather,  Mr. 
Hunter  discovers  at  Ansterfield,  —  a 
"sdllage  a  mile  or  more  northeast  from 
Bawtry,  on  the  other  side  of  that  town, 
—  where  the  church  books  show  the 
name  Bradford  to  have  been  common 


13-i 


HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 


[Book  I. 


this  congregation,  according  to  the  division  and  nomen- 
clature of  church  offices  which  had  come  into  use  in  the 
sect,  Richard  Clifton  was  Pastor  and  John  Robinson  was 
Teacher.  William  Brewster  was  the  most  considerable 
private  member. 

Richard  Clifton,  wlio  was  fifty  years  old  at  the  time 

of  the  queen's  death,  had  seventeen  years  before 
been  instituted  to  the  rectory  of  Babworth,  near 
Scrooby.    At  what  time  he  withdrew,  or  was  ejected,  from 
his  place  in  the  Established  Church,  does  not  ap- 
pear.    Of  the  early  history  of  Robinson,  nothing 


Clifton. 

1586. 
July  11 


John  Rob 
inson. 


at  that  period,  and  record  tlie  baptism 
of  "William  Bradford,  son  of  William, 
as  having  taken  place  March  19,  1590. 
The  demonstration  is  complete.  The 
reading  A?jsterfield  was  a  mistake  of 
the  copyist  or  of  the  printer.  If  Math- 
er knew  the  true  word,  he  had  no  op- 
portunity to  correct  the  press,  as  he 
had  his  book  printed  in  England. 

Morton  (Memorial,  1)  dates  the  ori- 
gin of  the  congregation  in  the  last  year 
of  Queen  Elizabeth,  the  same  year 
when  unconsciously  Gosnold  was  ex- 
ploring for  them  a  place  of  retreat. 
"In  the  year  1C02,  divers  godly  Chris- 
tians of  our  English  nation  In  the  North 
of  England,  being  studious  of  reforma- 
tion, and  therefore  not  only  witnessing 
against  human  inventions  and  additions 
in  the  worship  of  God,  but  minding 
most  the  positive  and  practical  part  of 
divine  institutions,  they  entered  into 
covenant  with  God  and  one  with  an- 
other in  the  enjoyment  of  the  ordi- 
nances of  God,"  &c.  But  Bradford  says : 
"  After  they  had  continued  together 
ahout  a  year,  and  kept  their  meetings 
every  Sabbath  in  one  place  or  other, 

they  resolved  to  get  over  into 

Holland  as  they  could,  which  was  in  the 
years  1G07  and  1608."  In  the  margin 
of  Dr.  Young's  edition  of  the  extract 
from  Bradford's  History  in  tlu;  Plymouth 
church  records,   the  date  1G02  stands 


against  the  statement  of  the  gathering 
of  this  congregation.  But  the  manu- 
script has  no  such  marginal  entry.  The 
editor  added  it,  I  suppose,  on  the  au- 
thority of  Morton.  (See  Young,  Chron- 
icles of  the  Pilgrims,  22,  note ;  and  see 
below,  135,  note  1.) 

Austerfield  is  a  hamlet  of  perhaps 
thirty  brick  houses,  roofed  with  tiles. 
At  least  two  of  them  look  as  if  they  had 
been  standing  in  Bradford's  time.  The 
church,  or  "  chapellerie,"  as  its  "  Regis- 
ter Booke  "  calls  it,  is  large  enough  to 
hold  only  a  hundred  and  fifty  pei'sons. 
Part  of  it,  at  least,  is  as  old  as  the  thir- 
teenth century.  It  had  no  other  than 
an  earthen  floor  till  the  year  1835,  and 
the  oaken  rail  of  the  chancel  is  the 
same  before  which  Bradford  was  held 
up  to  be  baptized  two  hundred  and  sev- 
enty years  ago.  It  has  two  bells,  and 
is  entered  on  one  side  under  a  Saxon 
arch,  from  a  porch  with  stone  benches, 
where  it  is  natural  for  the  visitor  to 
imagine  the  New-England  governor 
sitting  when  a  boy,  in  the  group  of  vil- 
lagers. The  nearest  way  from  Auster- 
field to  Scrooby  is  by  a  j)atli  through 
the  fields.  Unnoticed  in  our  history  as 
these  places  have  been  till  within  a  few 
years,  it  is  likely  that  when,  towards 
sunset  on  the  15th  of  September,  1856, 
I  walked  along  that  ])atli,  I  was  the  first 
person   related  to  the   American  Ply- 


1585. 


Chap.  IV.]  THE   FOUNDERS   OF  PLYMOUTH.  135' 

is  certainly  known,  except  that  lie  had  lived  at  Norwich.^ 
Brewster  —  who  "had  attained  some  learning,  viz.  wnuam 
the  knowledge  of  the  Latin  tongue,  and  some  J^''^"'^^"- 
insight  into  the  Greek,  and  spent  some  small  time  at 
Cambridge,  and  there  been  fu-st  seasoned  with  the  seeds 
of  grace  and  virtue  "  —  at  an  early  age  "  went  to  the  court, 
and  served  that  religious  and  godly  gentleman,  Mr.  Davi- 
son, divers  years  when  he  was  Secretary  of  State,  who 
found  him  so  discreet  and  faithful  as  he  trusted  him  above 
all  others  that  were  about  him,  and  only  employed  him  in 
all  matters  of  greatest  trust  and  secrecy.  He  esteemed 
him  rather  as  a  son  than  as  a  servant,  and  for  his  wisdom 
and  godliness  in  private  he  would  converse  with  him  more 
like  a  familiar  than  a  master.  He  attended  his  master 
when  he  was  sent  in  ambassage  by  the  queen  into  the 
Low  Countries  (in  the  Earl  of  Leicester's  time), 
as  for  other  weighty  affairs  of  state,  so  to  receive 
possession  of  the  cautionary  towns."  ^ 

mouth  -who  had  done  so  since  Bradford  says  Robinson  in  a  dedication  of  the 

trod  it  last  before  his  exile.     I  slept  in  "People's    Plea    for    the   Exercise   of 

a  farm-house  at  Scrooby,  and  reconnoi-  Prophecy"   (Works,  III.  287)    to   his 

tred  that  tillage  the  next  morning.     Its  "  Christian    friends    in    Norwich    and 

old  church  is  a  beautiful  structure.     At  thereabouts."      When    Bradford    says 

the   distance   from  it  of  a  quarter  of  that,  "  after  they  had  continued  together 

a  mile,  the  dike   round   the   vanished  about  a  year, they  resolved  to  get 

manor-house  may  still  be  traced,  and  over  into  Holland, which  was  in 

a  farmer's  house  is  believed  to  be  part  the  years  1607  and  1608"  (see  the  last 

of  the  ancient  stables  or  dog-kennels,  note),  he  is  perhaps  to  be  understood 

In  what  was  the  garden  is  a  mulberry-  as  reckoning  from  the  time  of  their  be- 

tree,   so    old    that  generations   before  ing  joined  by  Robinson,  whom  he  had 

Brewster  may  have  regaled  themselves  mentioned  just  before.      The  minister 

with  its  fruit.     The  local  tradition  de-  of  Scrooby  and  of  Leyden  may  have 

Glares  it  to  have  been  planted  by  Car-  been  the  John  Robinson  who  was  ma- 

dinal  Wolsey  during  his  sojourn  at  the  triculated  at  Christ  College,  Cambridge, 

manor   for  some   weeks   after   his  fall  in  1592,  and  became  a  Fellow  in  1598. 

from  power.     The  property  belongs  to  (Hunter,  Collections ;  comp.  Mass.  Hist. 

Richard  Milnes,  Esq.,  of  Bawtry  Hall.  Coll.,    XXXT.   113.)       A   Memoir  of 

There  is  a  bridge  over  the  Idle,  at  the  him  by  Mr.  Robert  Ashton  is  prefixed 

place  of  a  ford  by  which  Bradford  used  to  the  edition  of  his  works  published 

to  cross  on  his  Sunday  walk  to  Scrooby,  in  1851  by  the  Congregational  Union 

coming  from  Austerfield  through  Baw-  of  England.     In  respect  to  Robinson's 

try.  early  life,  it  is  barren  of  facts. 

1  "  Even  as  when  I  lived  with  you,"        2  Bradford,    History    of    Plymouth 


136  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

The  conversation  of  Davison,  Avho  was  one  of  the  emi- 
nent Puritans  of  that  time,  may  well  have  given  a  bias  to 
the  mind  of  his  young  dependent.     When  Davison  had 
fallen   into  disgrace  with  the   queen,   in   conse- 

1587.  .  .  .       . 

quence  of  her  simulated  displeasure  at  his  issue 
of  a  warrant  for  the  execution  of  the  Queen  of  Scots, 
Brewster  appears  to  have  retired  to  Scrooby,  probably  his 
birthplace;  not,  however,  till  he  had  remained  with  his 
patron  "  some  good  time  after,  doing  him  many  faithful 
offices  of  service  in  the  time  of  his  troubles."     Scrooby 

was  a  post-town  on  the  great  road  from  London 

1594,  April  1  ^  i  •  r- 

-1607,  Sept.  to  the  north,  and  there  he  held  the  office  of  post- 
master,  or,  as  it  was  then  called,  j^ost,  for  sev- 
eral years.^     Clifton's  congregation  "  ordinarily  met  at  his 

house  on  the  Lord's  day, and  with  great  love  he 

entertained  them  when  they  came,  making  provision  for 
them  to  his  great  charge."  Some  such  hospitality  was 
the  more  needful,  as  they  probably  came  together  from 
William  considerable  distances.  AVilliam  Bradford,  one  of 
Bradford.      Brcwstcr's  gucsts  aiid  fellow-worshippers,  was  a 

Plantation,  409,  410.  This  inestimable  ford  preserved  by  Morton  and  Prince, 
book,  after  being  lost  for  nearly  nine-  led  to  the  belief  that  it  was  Bradford's 
ty  years,  was  found  in  1855,  in  the  lost  History,  which  on  examination  it 
episcopal  library  at  Fulham,  and  has  proved  to  be.  When  Prince  used 
since,  through  the  kindness  of  the  late  it  in  1736,  it  belonged  to  the  library 
Bishop  of  London,  been  pubhshed  by  kept  in  the  tower  of  the  Old  South 
the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  Church  in  Boston.  In  1775,  that  church 
under  the  oversight  of  that  very  ju-  was  occupied  as  a  riding-school  for  the 
dicious  and  learned  antiquary,  Mr.  British  cavalry,  and  then  it  was,  prob- 
Charles  Deanc.  The  manuscript  was  ably,  that  the  book  was  takcu  away, 
known  to  have  been  used  by  ]\Iorton,  and  carried  to  England, 
Prince,  and  Hutchinson  in  the  com-  ^  Hunter,  Collections,  G5.  In  the 
position  of  their  works.  "What  was  its  Postmaster-General's  Oflice,  Mr.  Hun- 
fate  after  Hutchinson's  publication  of  ter  found  mcworanda  of  accounts  with 
his  second  volume,  in  1767,  remained  "William  Brewster,  post  of  Scrooby," 
unknown.  In  1846,  Bishop  AVilber-  from  April  1,  1594,  to  September  30, 
force,  in  his  History  of  the  Protestant  1607,  at  which  time  another  person  suc- 
Episcopal  Church  in  America,  referred  ceeded  him.  How  long  Brewster  had 
to  a  "manuscript  history  of  the  Plan-  held  the  office  before  April,  1594,  does 
tation  of  Plymouth  in  the  Fulham  not  appear,  as  there  is  no  earlier  record 
Library."  The  identity  of  his  quota-  of  the  names  of  postmasters  on  that 
tions  from  it  with   language  of  Brad-  route. 


Chap.  IV.] 


THE  FOUNDERS  OF  PLYMOUTH. 


137 


young  man  of  decent  condition  and  some  little  estate. 
Being  of  a  feeble  constitution,  and  left  doubly  an  orphan 
in  early  childhood,  he  became  precociously  reflecting  and 
wise;  and  the  preaching  of  Mr.  Clifton  determined  his 
character  and  his  course  of  life.^ 

The  annoyances  which,  under  Archbishop  Bancroft's 
vigilant  administration,  distressed  the  Non-conformists  in 
every  part  of  England,  became  so  intolerable  to  Resolution  of 

.  1    •  C       '  "y        r  I*         I,  i?  the  Scrooby 

this  company  oi  simple  larmers,  or  whom  lew,  congregation 
it  is  likely,  had  ever  seen  the  sea,  or  till  lately  «o  emigrate. 
learned  anything  of  other  countries,  that  at  length  they 
resolved  on  the  sad  expedient  of  expatriation.  They 
heard  that  in  the  Low  Countries  religious  freedom  was 
allowed,  and  that  some  of  their  persecuted  countrymen 
had  there  found  a  refuge ;  ^  and  there  they  determined  to 
seek  a  new  home.^ 


1  "  ^VTien  he  was  about  a  dozen  years 
old,  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures  began 
to  cause  great  impressions  upon  him ; 
and  those  impressions  Avere  much  as- 
sisted and  improved  when  he  came  to 
enjoy  Mr.  Richard  Clifton's  illuminating 
ministry,  not  far  from  his  abode."  (Math- 
er, Magnaha,  Book  II.  Chap.  11.  §  2.) 
It  is  not  my  intention  to  appeal  to  Math- 
er's authority  in  relation  to  any  nice 
question  of  fact.  But  his  opportuni- 
ties for  information  respecting  Bradford 
were  good,  his  maternal  uncle,  the  sec- 
ond John  Cotton,  having  been  minister 
of  Plymouth,  and  so  pastor  of  Brad- 
ford's fixmily. 

Babworth,  where  Clifton  ofBciat- 
ed  while  attached  to  the  Established 
Church,  was  nine  or  ten  miles  fi'ora 
Austerfield,  and  Bradford  would  pass 
through  Scrooby  in  going  thither. 

2  "  Holland  hath  been  a  cage  to  these 
unclean  birds."  (Baylie,  Dissuasive 
from  the  Errors  of  the  Time,  8.) 

3  "  Some  were  taken  and  clapped  up 
in  prison,  others  had  their  houses  beset 
and  watched  night  and  day,  and  hardly 

12* 


escaped  their  hands ;  and  the  most  were 
fain  to  fly  and  leave  their  houses  and 
habitations,  and  the  means  of  their  live- 
lihood  Seeing  themselves  thus 

molested,  and  that  there  was  no  hope  of 
their  continuance  there,  by  a  joint  con- 
sent they  resolved  to  go  into  the  Low 
Countries,  where  they  heard  was  free- 
dom of  religion  for  all  men,  as  also  how 
sundry  from  London  and  other  parts  of 
the  land,  that  had  been  exiled  and  per- 
secuted for  the  same  cause,  were  gone 
thither  and   lived   at  Amsterdam   and 

other  places  of  the  land To  go 

into  a  country  they  knew  not  but  by 
hearsay,  where  they  must  learn  a  new 
language  and  get  their  livings  they 
knew  not  how,  it  being  a  dear  place 
and  subject  to  the  miseries  of  war,  it 
was  by  many  thought  an  adventure 
almost  desperate,  a  case  intolerable, 
and  a  misery  worse  than  death;  es- 
pecially seeing  they  were  not  accjuaint- 
ed  with  trades  nor  traffic  (by  which  the 
country  doth  subsist),  but  had  only  been 
used  to  a  plain  country  life,  and  the 
iiuiocent  trade  of  husbandry.    But  these 


138  •  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

But  even  this  painful  expedient  they  were  not  free  to 
choose,  and  the  design  had  to  be  prosecuted  by  stealth. 
Under  color  of  a  royal  proclamation  which  had  been 
obtained  by  Bancroft,  forbidding  the  king's  subjects  to 
transport  themselves  to  Virginia  without  his  special  li- 
cense, or  under  some  other  pretence,  the  embarkation  of 
the  Scrooby  people  was  obstructed.  A  party  of 
them  chartered  a  vessel  to  receive  them  and  their 
effects  near  Boston  in  Lincolnshire,  to  which  place  they 
travelled  by  land  fifty  miles.  The  master  did  not  keep 
his  engagement,  and  when,  "  after  long  waiting  and  large 
expenses,"  they  at  last  got  on  board,  he  betrayed  them 
to  "  the  searchers  and  other  officers,"  who  robbed  them 
"  of  their  money,  books,  and  much  other  goods,"  "  and 
then  carried  them  back  into  the  town,  and  made  them  a 
spectacle  and  wonder  to  the  multitude."  There  they  were 
kept  in  prison,  till  an  Order  of  Council  released  most  of 
them,  while  Brewster  and  six  others  were  detained  for 
trial.i 

"  The  next  spring  after,  there  was  another  attempt 
made,  by  some  of  these  and  others."  They  agreed 
with  a  Dutch  shipmaster  to  take  them  on  board 
at  a  place  on  the  Humber  between  Grimsby 
and  Hull,  thirty  miles  distant  from  their  home.  The  em- 
barkation was  interrupted  by  the  appearance  of  an  armed 
force  of  horse  and  foot ;  and  the  Dutchman,  alarmed,  put 
to  sea  with  the  movables  and  such  of  the  party  as  had 
come  on  board.  Of  the  rest,  —  many  of  them  separated 
from  husbands  and  parents,  and  without  clothing  or 
money,  —  those  who  did  not  find  a  wretched  safety  in 
fliglit  were  apprehended,  and  "  hurried  from  one  place  to 
another  and  from  one  justice  to  another,  until  in  the  end 
they  knew  not  what  to  do  with  them ;  for  to  imprison  so 

things  did  not  dismay  tlicm  (althougli  they  rested  on  his  providence,  and  knew 

they  did  sometimes  trouble  them),  for  whom  they  had  believed."     (Bradford, 

their  desires  were  set  on  the  ways  of  10,  11.) 

God,  and  to  enjoy  his  ordinances.    But  ^  Ibid.,  12. 


Chap.  IV]  THE  FOUNDERS   OF  FLYMOUTH.  139 

many  women  and  innocent  children  for  no  other  cause 
(many  of  them)  but  that  they  would  go  with  their  hus- 
bands, seemed  to  be  unreasonable,  and  all  would  cry  out 
of  them ;  and  to  send  them  home  again  was  as  difficult, 
for  they  alleged,  as  the  truth  was,  they  had  no  homes  to 
go  to,  for  they  either  had  sold  or  otherwise  disposed  of 
their  houses  and  livings."^ 

At  last  the  scattered  flock  collected  at  Amsterdam. 
Clifton  made  the  passage  after  the  unfortunate  August, 
attempts  which  have  been  mentioned.  Brewster,  denceir 
released  from  his  imprisonment,  accompanied  or  ^'n^^erdam. 
followed  him.^  The  heroic  wanderer  had  last  traversed 
the  streets  of  that  opulent  city  in  the  train  of  the  am- 
bassador of  Elizabeth,  and  in  charge  of  the  keys  of  Dutch 
towns  pledged  to  England.  With  humble  associates  he 
was  now  to  earn  a  living  by  some  humble  daily  labor. 
The  lot  of  his  companions,  with  their  inferior  resources, 
was  harder  yet;  and,  with  his  fellow-leaders  in  the  en- 
terprise, it  belonged  to  him  to  cheer  the  sorrows  of 
others  while  he  struggled  with  his  own.  The  imagina- 
tion is  tasked  to  picture  the  amazement  and  conscious 
helplessness  of  these  north-country  peasants,  as  they 
gazed  on  the  palaces  that  bordered  and  the  fleets  that 
choked  the  long  canals,  and  pushed  their  way  through 
crowds  gathered  from  all  the  countries  of  the  globe. 
"  They  heard  a  strange  and  uncouth  language,  and 
beheld  the  different  manners  and  customs  of  the  people, 
with  their  strange  fashions  and  attires ;  all  so  far  differ- 
ing from  that  of  their  plain  country  villages,  wherein 
they   were   bred   and   had   so   long  lived,    as  it    seemed 

^  Bradford,  14, 1.5.     " Pitiful  it  was  to  little  ones  hanging  about  them,  crying 

see  the  heavy  case  of  these  poor  women  for  fear,  and  quaking  with  cold." 

in  this  distress ;  what  weeping  and  cry-  2  "  ^Mien  Mr.  Robinson,  Mr.  Brew- 

inc  on  every  side;  some  for  their  hus-  ster,  and  other  principal  members  were 

bands  that  were  carried  away  in  the  come  over,  for  they  were  of  the  last, 

ship ;  others  not  knowing  what  should  and  stayed  to  help  the  weakest  over 

become  of  them  and  their  little  ones;  before  them,"  &c.     (Ibid.,  16.) 
others  melted  in  tears,  seeing  their  poor 


140  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

they  were  come  into  a  new  world.  But  these  were  not 
the  thmgs  they  much  looked  on,  or  long  took  up  their 
thoughts.  For  they  had  other  work  in  hand,  and  an- 
other kind  of  war  to  wage  and  maintain ;  for it 

was  not  long  before  they  saw  the  grim  and  grisly  face 
of  poverty  come  on  them  like  an  armed  man,  with  whom 
they  must  buckle  and  encounter,  and  from  whom  they 
could  not  fly."i 

At  Amsterdam  they  remained  a  distinct  community, 
though  they  found  there  that  London  congregation  which 
had  emigrated  some  twelve  or  fifteen  years  before,  and 
the  Gainsborough  congregation,  their  former  neighbors  in 
Nottinghamshire.  Between  these  societies  there  existed 
some  dispute,  which  Robinson  and  his  people  fruitlessly 
endeavored  to  compose.  Pained  to  witness  it,  and  fearful 
of  some  ill  effect  from  it  on  their  own  harmony,  they 
Removal  rcsolvcd,  after  a  few  months,  to  remove  to  Ley- 
toLeyden.  j^j^^  forty  mllcs  distaut,  a  place  recommended  by 
its  "  sweet  situation,"  though,  "  wanting  that  traffic  by  sea 
which  Amsterdam  enjoyed,  it  was  not  so  beneficial  for 
their  outward   means   of  living  and  estates."-      Clifton, 

ifiin.      nearly  sixty  years  of  age,  "  was  loath  to  remove 

May  20.  r^^y  j^Qre,"  and  finished  his  life  at  Amsterdam. 
On  the  removal,  the  church  came  "  under  the  able  minis- 
try and  prudent  government  of  Mr.  John  Hobinson  and 
Mr.  William  Brewster,  who  was  an  assistant  unto  him  in 
the  place  of  an  elder,  unto  which  he  was  now  called  and 
chosen  by  the  church." 

Lcyden,  recovered  from  the  devastations  of  the  siege, 
which  thirty-five  years  before  had  attracted  to  it  the  won- 
der of  the  world,  contained  at  this  time  a  population  of 

1  Bradford,  16.  on  tlie   12th  of  February  of  that  year, 

2  The  conjrren^ation  yn-obably  re-  requesting  leave  to  come  durinfj;  the 
moved  to  Ley  den  in  the  spring  or  sum-  ensuing  month  of  May,  and  reside  in 
mer  of  1G09.  ]\Ir.  George  Sumner  that  city  with  his  congregation  of  a 
has  a  letter  of  Robinson  to  the  mngis-  hundred  persons,  including  men  and 
trates  of  Leyden,  dated  at  Amsterdam,  -vvomeu.     Comp.  Hist.  i\Iag.,  III.  357. 


Chap.  IV.]      THE  FOUNDERS  OF  PLYMOUTH.  141 

not  less  than  seventy  thousand  souls,  being  the  chief  man- 
ufacturing town  of  the  Netherlands,  and  one  of  the  most 
considerable  in  Europe.  Its  famous  University,  found- 
ed by  William  the  Silent,  in  recompense  of  the  15-5 
heroism  and  sufferings  of  its  inhabitants  during  •'^"•^• 
the  siege,  bore  upon  its  rolls  such  names  as  those  of 
Grotius,  Scaliger,  Arminius,  Gomar,  Heinsius,  and  Des- 
cartes.^ The  English  strangers  "  fell  to  such  trades  and 
employments  as  they  best  could,  valuing  peace  and  their 
spiritual  comfort  above  any  other  riches  whatsoever ;  and 
at  length  they  came  to  raise  a  competent  and  comfortable 
living,  but  with  hard  and  continual  labor Enjoy- 
ing much  sweet  and  delightful  society  and  spiritual  com- 
fort together, they  grew  in  knowledge  and  other 

gifts  and  graces  of  the  spirit  of  God,  and  lived  together 
in  peace  and  love  and  holiness.  And  many  came  unto 
them  from  divers  parts  of  England,  so  as  they  grew  a 
great  congregation."^      Their  number  can   only  be  con- 

1  "  On  appellait  cette  doctissime  cite  he  lived  well  and  plentifully ;  for  he 
I'Athenes  de  TOccident."  (Juste,  Hi-  fell  into  a  way,  by  reason  he  had  the 
stoire  de  I'lnstruction  Publlque  en  Latin  tongue,  to  teach  many  students 
Belgique,  95.)  Descartes  was  probably  who  had  a  desire  to  learn  the  English 
at  Leyden  when  Robinson's  friends,  in  tongue,  to  teach  them  English,  and  by 
1619,  were  preparing  to  leave  it.  Sal-  his  method  they  quickly  attained  it  with 
masius  and  Boerhaave  were  later.  great  facility,  for  he  drew  rules  to  learn 

2  Bradford,  17. — Mather  (Magnalia,  it  by,  after  the  Latin  manner;  and 
II.  Chap.  I.  §  4)  speaks  of  Bradford's  many  gentlemen,  both  Danes  and  Ger- 
"  serving  of  a  Frenchman  at  the  work-  mans,  resorted  to  him,  as  they  had  time 
ing  of  silks."  —  Bradford  says  of  Brew-  from  other  studies,  some  of  them  being 
ster  (412)  :  "After  he  came  into  Hoi-  great  men's  sons.  He  also  had  means 
land,  he  suffered  much  hardship  after  to  set  up  printing  by  the  help  of  some 
he  had  spent  the  most  of  his  means,  friends,  and  so  had  employment  enough, 
having  a  great  charge  and  many  chil-  and,  by  reason  of  many  books  which 
dren,  and,  in  regard  of  his  former  would  not  be  allowed  to  be  printed  in 
breeding  and  course  of  life,  not  so  fit  England,  they  might  have  had  more 
for  many  employments  as  others  were,  than  they  could  do."  Some  of  the  com- 
especially  such  as  were  toilsome  and  pany  are  believed  to  have  been  weav- 
laborious.  Yet  he  ever  bore  his  con-  ers.  (]\Iass.  Hist.  Coll.,  XHI.  171.) 
dition  with  much  cheerfulness  and  con-  Brewster's  printing  operations  were 
tentation.  Towards  the  latter  part  of  closely  watched  by  Sir  Dudley  Carle- 
those  twelve  years  spent  in  Holland,  ton,  the  English  ambassador.  When 
his  outward  condition  was  mended,  and  he  went  to  England  in  1619  to  make 


142 


HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 


[Book  I. 


jectured.  It  may,  when  at  the  largest,  have  counted 
between  two  and  three  hundred  adult  persons.^  In  their 
constant  amity  towards  one  another,  and  their  unanimous 
affection  towards  their  pastor,  they  reproduced,  as  they 
fondly  persuaded  themselves,  "  the  primitive  pattern  of  the 
first  churches."  Their  uprightness,  diligence,  and  sobriety 
gave  them  a  good  name  and  pecuniary  credit  with  their 
Dutch  neighbors.  The  magistrates  afterwards  testified, 
"  These  English  have  lived  amongst  us  now  these  twelve 
years,  and  yet  we  never  had  any  suit  or  accusation  come 
against  any  of  them."~     But  no  public  token  of  good-will 


arrangements  for  the  emigration,  Sir 
Dudley  (July  22)  sent  information  to 
the  Secretary  of  State,  and  recommend- 
ed that  he  should  be  apprehended  and 
examined.  "  One  William  Brewster, 
a  Brownist,  -who  hath  been  for  some 
years  an  inhabitant  and  printer  at  Ley- 
den,  is  now  within  these  three  weeks 
removed  from  thence,  and  gone  back  to 
dwell  in  London."  August  20,  he  wrote 
again,  saying  that  he  had  been  on  the 
look-out  for  Brewster,  but  could  not 
learn  that  he  had  returned  to  Leyden. 
September  1 2,  he  reported  that  "  the 
sellout  who  was  employed  by  the  magis- 
trates for  his  apprehension,  being  a 
dull,  drunken  fellow,  took  one  man  for 
another."  It  may  be,  that  the  magis- 
trates were  not  anxious  to  have  him 
taken.  As  late  as  January  29,  1G20, 
Sir  Dudley  was  still  hunting  for  him. 
It  seems  that  Brewster  had  been  em- 
ployed by  a  person  named  Brewer  "to 
print  prohibited  books  to  be  vented 
underhand  in  his  Majesty's  kingdom." 
The  printing  of  the  "Perth  Assembly," 
and  of  a  discourse  "  De  llegimine  Ec- 
clesiic  Scoticana?,"  was  supposed  to  have 
been  done  l)y  him.  (Letters  from  and  to 
Sir  Dudley  Carleton,  Knight,  pp.  380, 
380,  380,  390,  437.)  The  type  of  books 
from  Brewster's  press  (of  which  there 
is,  or  lately  was,  at  Plymouth  a  copy  of 


one,  Cartwright's  "  Commentarii  in  Pro- 
verbia  Salomonis")  has  the  peculiar 
form  of  the  type  of  the  Elzevirs.  One 
of  their  descendants,  living  at  Leyden  in 
1851,  assured  ]Mr.  George  Sumner  that 
it  must  have  been  obtained  from  them. 

1  Of  AinswQrth's  church  at  Am- 
sterdam Bradford  says  (Dialogue,  in 
Young,  Pilgrims,  455),  "  Before  their 
division  and  breach,  they  were  about 
three  hundred  communicants "  ;  and 
adds  (Ibid.,  456),  "For  the  church  of 
Leyden,  they  were  sometimes  not  much 
fewer  in  number."  On  the  other  hand, 
Winslow,  in  the  "  Briefe  Narration  "  ap- 
pended to"  Hypocrisie  Uuma.<ked"  (90), 
says  that  when  "the  minor  part,  with !Mr. 
Brewster,  their  elder,  resolved  to  enter 
upon  this  great  work,  the  diiference  of 
number  was  not  great "  between  them 
and  those  who  stayed  behind.  Now 
the  whole  company  that  sailed  in  the 
Mayflower  and  Speedwell  was  "  about 
a  hundred  and  twenty  persons."  On 
the  supposition  that  only  one  quarter 
of  this  number  had  joined  the  expe- 
dition in  England,  only  ninety  (includ- 
ing men,  women,  and  children)  had 
come  from  Leyden,  and  the  comj)any 
at  Leyden  before  the  division  would 
have  amounted  to  scarcely  moi-e  than 
two  hundred  of  both  sexes  and  all  age«. 

2  Bradford,  20. 


Chap.  IV.]      THE  FOUNDERS  OF  PLYMOUTH.  143 

could  be  extended  to  them,  for  fear  of  offence  to   the 
English  government. 

Robinson  was  their  arbiter  in  differences,  and  their 
judicious  adviser  in  secular  affairs,  as  well  as  character  of 
their  spiritual  guide.  His  writings  still  extant,^  Robinson. 
and  the  influence  which  he  exerted  on  his  associates  and 
others,  alike  testify  to  his  eminent  virtue,  capacity,  accom- 
plishments, and  wisdom.  His  friends  never  wearied  of 
extolling  him,  and  his  opponents  did  not  withhold  their 
warm  commendation.^  Though  involved  in  controversies 
from  the  time  of  his  separation  from  the  Church,  he  seems 
to  have  constantly  matured  his  native  calmness  of  judg- 
ment and  gentleness  of  temper.  It  was  easy  for  him  to 
rise  above  the  technicalities  of  his  sect  to  comprehensive 
and  generous  principles  and  views ;  and,  if  his  writings  are 
not  free  from  the  strong  language  which  pervaded  the 
religious  discussions  of  the  time,  they  show  him  to  have 
grown  more  tolerant,  charitable,  and  hopeful  with  in- 
creasing years  and  harder  experience.  Recognizing  with 
a  magnanimous  cordiality  the  Christian  character  wher- 
ever it  appeared,  he  discouraged  the  use  of  sectarian 
names ;  and  he  was  so  far  from  pretending  to  infallibility 
in  religious  doctrine,  that  he  cheerfully  looked,  and  taught 
his  followers  to  look,  for  "more  light  to  shine  from  God's 
holy  word."  His  logical  ability  and  scholarly  attainments 
were  such,  that  a  Professor  in  the  University  and  "  the 
chief  preachers  of  the  city  "  sought  his  aid  in  the  defence 
of  their  Calvinistic  theology;  and  his  friends  boasted, 
that,  in  public  disputes,  which  he  had  modestly  attempted 
to  decline,  he  signally  and  repeatedly  foiled  the  famous 
Arminian  champion,  Episcopius.^ 

1  The  first  collection  of  Robinson's  ever  that  sect  [the  Separatists]  en- 
Works  was  published  in  1851,  in  three    joyed." 

volumes.     See  above,  p.  135,  note  1.  3  Bradford,    21.  —  Winslow,   Briefe 

2  Baylie  (Dissuasive  from  the  Errors  Narration,  95. — Some  examples  of  com- 
of  the  Times,  1 7)  calls  him  "  the  most  mendation  of  him  by  Dutch  and  Ger- 
learned,  polished,  and  modest  spirit  that  man  writers  (the  earliest  dated  twenty- 


144  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

The  twelve  years'  residence  of  Robinson's  church  in  the 
Netherlands  nearly  corresponds  with   the   twehe  years' 

1C09.  truce  concluded  between  the  United  Provinces 
April  9.  j^j^j  ^Yie  Spaniards  in  the  sequel  of  Prince  Mau- 
rice's brilliant  though  checkered  military  career  of  twenty- 
^     ,         two  years.     It  was  a  period  disturbed  by  internal 

Disorders  in  •'  ■•■  •' 

the  Netiier-  (lisordcrs,  aud  by  the  bitterness  of  political  and  sec- 
tarian animosity.  The  heroic  nature  of  the  head 
of  the  house  of  Orange  seemed  to  have  departed  with  the 
adversity  which  had  revealed  it  in  such  favorable  lights. 
He  scarcely  disguised  his  ambition  for  sovereignty.  The 
incorruptible  Grand  Pensionary,  Barneveldt,  stood  in  the 
way  of  the  usurpation.  The  religious  opinions  of  that 
illustrious  patriot,  opposed  to  the  dominant  Calvinism, 
made  it  possible  to  effect  his  ruin  by  artful  applications 
to  the  popular  bigotry.  The  military  force,  commanded 
by  the  Prince,  gave  no  support  to  that  administration 
of  the  laws  Mhich  would  have  restrained  a  persecuting 
1618,  Nov.  13  9-nd  factious  fanaticism.  The  transactions  at  the 
-ici9,May9.  gy^od  of  Dort  iuflamcd  the  prevailing  passions. 
The  head  of  Barneveldt,  who  was  seventy-two 
years  old,  was  brought  to  the  block,  and  Grotius 
was  sentenced  to  perpetual  imprisonment.  The  Remon- 
strants were  treated  as  outlaws.     A  popular  frenzy,  as 


eight  years  after  Lis  death)  have  been and  was  ever  desirous  of  any 

collected  by  INIr.  George  Sumner.    (See  light,  and  the  more  able,  learned,  and 

Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  XXIX.  72-74.) — "A  holy  the  persons   were,   the   more   he 

man  not  easily  to  be  paralleled  for  all  desired  to  confer  and  reason  with  them, 

things,  whose  singular  virtues  we  shall  He  was  very  profitable  in  his  ministry 

not  take  upon  us  here  to  describe and  comfortable  to  his  people.    He  was 

As  he  was  a  man  learned  and  of  solid  much  beloved  of  them,  and  as  loving 

judgment,  and  of  a  quick  and  sharp  wit,  was  he  unto  them,  and  entirely  sought 

so  was  he  also  of  a  tender  conscience,  their  good   for  soul  and   body.     In  a 

and  very  sincere  in  all  his  ways,  a  hater  word,  he  was  much  esteemed  and  rev- 

of   hypocrisy    and    dissimulation,    and  ercnced  of  all  that  knew  him,  and  his 

would    be   very   plain    with    his    best  abilities  [were  acknowledged]  both  of 

friends.     He  was  very  courteous,  aflfa-  friends  and  strangers."    (Bradford,  Di- 

blc,  and   sorialjlc  in  his  conversation,  alogue,  &c.,  in  Young,  Pilgrims,  451, 

and  towards  his  own  people  especially;  452.) 


Chap.  IV.]  THE  FOUNDERS   OF  PLYMOUTH.  145 

senseless  as  it  was  fierce,  but  possessing  all  classes  in 
society  alike,  was  let  loose  against  men  than  whom  the 
infatuated  country  possessed  none  more  worthy  of  honor 
for  virtue  or  for  public  services. 

Leyden  was  one  of  the  chief  theatres  of  the  agitation. 
The  English  strangers  were  witnesses  to  the  strife 

,  ,  ,  ...  Uisturbancea 

which  rent  its  University,  where  Arminius  him-  at  Leyden. 
self,  the  chief  heresiarch,  was  a  Professor,  and 
to  the  bloody  conflict  which  took  place  in  its  streets. 
Vorstius,  the  successor  of  Arminius,  whom  King  James, 
after  professing  to  confute,  had  proposed  to  the  States- 
General  to  burn,^  was  their  townsman.     When  Leyden 
confederated  with  Rotterdam  and  other  towns  to 
make  a  last  effort  for  freedom,  the  counsels  of 
that  fruitless  league  were  conducted  by  their  neighbors 
and  municipal  governors.     It  would  be  interesting  to  be 
informed  of  any  relation  borne  by  them  to  this  course  of 
events,  and  of  the  light  in  which  they  regarded  it.     We 
naturally  wish  to  think  that  they  did  not  share  in  the 
cruel  hostility  which  overwhelmed  the  Remonstrant  pa- 
triots, and  that  disgust  at  the  outrages  which  they  saw 
committed  by  their  fellow-believers  was  among  the  mo- 
tives that  prompted  them  to  seek  another  home.^ 

1  Letter  to  the  States-General,  in  cliurch  at  Leyden,  very  interesting  re- 
"  Works  of  the  Most  High  and  Mighty  suits  of  an  investigation  made  on  the 
Prince  James,"  &c.,  355.  spot  by  our  distinguished  countryman, 

2  Only  two  of  Robinson's  publica-  Mr.  George  Sumner,  in  1841,  have 
tions  of  the  years  between  1614  and  been  published  in  the  Massachusetts 
1624  are  preserved.  "The  People's  Historical  Collections  (XXIX.  42- 
Plea  for  the  Exercise  of  Prophecy"  74.)  Prince  says  (Chron.  Hist.,  160)  : 
(1618)  is  a  defence  of  lay  preaching  "  When  I  was  in  Leyden,  in  1714,  the 
against  the  argument  of  an  Enghsh  most  ancient  people  from  their  parents 
clergyman.  "  A  Just  and  Necessary  told  me  that  the  city  had  such  a  value 
Apology,"  originally  published  in  Latin  for  them  [Robinson's  company]  as  to 
(1619),  is  a  refutation  of  some  charges  let  them  have  one  of  their  churches, 
both  of  illiberality  and  latitudinarianism  in  the  chancel  whereof  he  lies  buried, 
brought  against  "  certain  Christians  no  which  the  English  still  enjoy  ;  and  that, 
less  contumeliously  than  commonly  as  he  was  had  in  high  esteem  both  by 
called   Brownists   or   Barrowists."  the  city  and  University,  for  his  Iearnin<T, 

As  to  the   condition  of  Robinson's    piety,  moderation,  and    excellent  ac- 

VOL.   I.  13 


146  HISTORY  OF  N*EW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

Though    their   industry   had   improved    their   circum- 
stances, and  their  religion  taught  them  content- 
Project  of  '_  o  o 

another  re-    mcut  with  au  humblc  lot,  a  few  years'  experience 

moval.  1        •  1      1         1 

decided  tliem  aganist  a  permanent  settlement 
where  they  were.  The  hardships  which  they  could  endure, 
they  found  "  to  be  such  as  few  in  comparison  would 
come  to  them,"  and  "  it  was  thought  that,  if  a  better  and 
easier  place  of  living  could  be  had,  it  would  draw  many." 
"Though  the  people  generally  bore  all  these  difficulties 
very  cheerfully  and  with  a  resolute  courage,  being  in  the 
best  and  strength  of  their  years,  yet  old  age  began  to 
steal  on  many  of  them,  and  their  great  and  continual 
labors,  -with  other  crosses  and  sorrows,  hastened  it  before 
the  time."  They  were  anxious  both  for  the  health  and 
for  the  character  of  their  offspring.  "  Many  of  their  chil- 
dren that  were  of  best  dispositions  and  gracious  inclina- 
tions, having  learned  to  bear  the  yoke  in  their  youth  and 
willing  to  bear  part  of  their  parents'  burden,  were  often- 
times so  oppressed  with  their  heavy  labors,  that,  although 
their  minds  were  free  and  willing,  yet  their  bodies  bowed 
under  the  weight  of  the  same,  and  became  decrepit  in  their 


complishmcnts,  the  magistrates,  minis-  Sumner  found  a  record  of  his  inter- 
ters,  scholars,  and  most  of  the  gentry  ment,  and  a  memorandum  of  the  cost, 
mourned  his  death  as  a  public  loss,  and  which  was  small ;  —  3.  That,  as  to  his 
followed  him  to  the  grave."  Mr.  Sum-  funeral,  not  only  Prince,  but  Winslow, 
ner  has  shown,  —  1.  That  the  church  Avho  had  much  earlier  said  (Ibid.)  that 
supposed  by  Prince  to  have  been  occu-  "the  University  and  ministers  of  the 
pied  by  Robinson's  congregation  was  in  city  accompanied  him  to  his  grave  with 
fact  occupied  by  the  English  Prcsby-  all  their  accustomed  solemnities,"  must 
terian  congregation,  which,  as  well  as  have  been  in  error.  Winslow  was  not 
llobinson's,  was  established  at  Leyden,  in  Holland  at  the  time ;  and  there  is  no 
and  that  there  is  no  reason  to  believe  statement  ofthe  kind  in  the  letters  on  the 
that  any  church  was  granted  to  Robin-  subject  copied  into  Bradford's  Letter- 
son's  people  by  the  magistrates;  tliey  Book  (IMass.  Hist.  Coll.,  IH.  39).  Un- 
probably  met  at  his  house,  which  Wins-  der  common  circumstances,  Robinson's 
low (P>ricfe  Narration,  90) says  was  large,  funeral  might  have  been  attended  with 
and  wliich  was  ])roba))ly  taken  as  adapt-  such  marks  of  respect ;  but  at  this  time 
fd  (o  that  use  ;  —  2.  That  Robinson  was  the  plague  was  raging  in  Leyden,  and 
not  buried  in  the  church  supposed,  but  ])ublic;  funeral  solemnities  were  Bus- 
in    the    cathedral   church,   where    ^Ir.  pended. 


Chap.  IV]      THE  FOUNDERS  OF  PLYMOUTH.  147 

early  youth,  the  vigor  of  nature  being  consumed  in  the 
bud,  as  it  were.  But  that  which  was  more  lamentable, 
and  of  all  sorrows  most  heavy  to  be  borne,  was  that  many 
of  their  children,  by  these  occasions,  and  the  great  licen- 
tiousness of  youth  in  the  country,  and  the  manifold  temp- 
tations of  the  place,  were  drawn  away  by  evil  examples 

into  extravagant  and  dangerous  courses Some 

became  soldiers,  others  took  them  upon  far  voyages  by 
sea,  and  other  some  worse  courses,  tending  to  dissoluteness 
and  danger  of  their  souls,  to  the  great  grief  of  their  par- 
ents and  dishonor  of  God ;  so  that  they  saw  their  poster- 
ity would  be  in  danger  to  degenerate  and  be  corrupted."-^ 
They  had  not  lost  their  affection  for  their  intolerant  na- 
tive country,  and  they  felt  it  to  be  "  grievous  to  live  from 
under  the  protection  of  the  state  of  England."  They 
considered  "how  like  they  were  to  lose  their  language 
and  their  name  of  English,  how  little  good  they  did,  or 
were  like  to  do,  to  the  Dutch  in  reforming  the  Sabbath,^ 
how  unable  there  to  give  such  education  to  their  children 
as  they  themselves  had  received  "  ;  and,  —  "  if  God  would 
be  pleased  to  discover  some  place  unto  them,  though  in 
America,  where  they  might  exemplarily  show  their  ten- 
der countrymen  by  their  example,  no  less  burdened  than 
themselves,  where  they  might  live  and  comfortably  sub- 
sist," and,  "  being  freed  from  Antichristian  bondage," 
might  "keep  their  names  and  nation,  and  not  only  be  a 
means  to  enlarge  the  dominions  of  the  English  state,  but 
the  Church  of  Christ  also,  if  the  Lord  had  a  people  among 
the  natives  whither  he  would  bring  them,"  —  "hereby 
they  thought  they  might  more  glorify  God,  do  more 
good  to  their  country,  better  provide  for  their  posterity, 

1  Bradford,  22-24.  under  Lutheran  or  Calvinistic  rule,  of 

2  Like  most  of  the  Puritans,  they  had  a  transfer  of  the  obligations  of  the  Jew- 
adopted  the  doctrine,  then  recently  ad-  ish  Sabbath  to  the  weekly  recurring 
vanced  in  England  by  Dr.  Bound,  and  day  of  Christian  commemoration  and 
neither  then  nor  yet  extensively  adopt-  worship. 

ed  by  Continental  Protestants,  whether 


148  HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  T. 

and  live  to  be  more  refreshed  by  their  labors,  than  ever 
they  could  do  in  Holland,  where  they  were."^ 

There  can  be  no  more  generous  ambition  than  is  dis- 
closed in  these  aftecting  words.  Unenterprising  villagers 
at  first,  habituated  at  length  to  a  new  home  and  able  to 
earn  a  decent  living  by  humble  drudgery,  some  of  them 
now  sinking  into  age,  they  turn  their  thoughts  to  their 
posterity.  With  a  patriotic  yearning,  they  desire  to  ex- 
tend the  dominion  of  the  native  country  which  refuses  to 
give  them  a  peaceable  home  on  its  broad  lands.  And 
through  the  hardships  of  a  long  voyage  and  an  unknown 
continent,  they  propose  to  be  missionaries  to  the  heathen. 

The  project  occasioned  much  discussion.  It  offered  no 
certainties  on  the  bright  side.  The  dangers  of  both  sea 
and  land  seemed  formidable.  The  cost  of  the  voyage 
would  exceed  any  means  in  their  possession.  Its  length 
might  be  beyond  the  endurance  of  the  aged  and  feeble  of 
their  number.  Arrived  at  its  end,  they  would  "  be  liable 
to  famine  and  nakedness,  and  the  want,  in  a  manner,  of 
all  things,  with  sore  sicknesses."  Appalling  reports  had 
reached  them  of  the  ferocity  and  treachery  of  the  savage 
people;  their  hard  experience  in  the  removal  ten  years 
before  was  not  forgotten  ;  and  the  ill  success  of  the  earlier 
attempts  at  settlement  in  Maine  and  in  Virginia  was  a 
heavy  discouragement. 

On  the  other  hand,  they  considered  "  that  all  great 
and  honorable  actions  were  accompanied  with  great  diffi- 
culties, and  must  be  both  enterprised  and  overcome  with 

answerable  courages The  dangers  were  great,  but 

not  desperate,  and  the  difficulties  were  many,  but  not  in- 
vincible. For  though  there  were  many  of  them  likely, 
yet  they  were  not  certain.  It  might  be,  sundry  of  the 
things  feared  might  never  befall ;  others,  by  provident 
care,  and  the  use  of  good  means,  might,  in  a  great  meas- 
ure, be  prevented ;  and  all  of  them,  through  the  help  of 

1  Winslow,  Briefe  Narration,  81. 


Chap.  IV.]  THE  FOUNDERS   OF  PLYMOUTH.  149 

God,  by  fortitude  and  patience,  might  either  be  borne  or 
overcome.  True  it  was  that  such  attempts  were  not  to 
be  made  and  undertaken  but  upon  good  ground  and  rea- 
son, not  rashly  or  Hghtly,  as  many  have  done,  for  curiosity 
or  hope  of  gain.  But  their  condition  was  not  ordinary. 
Their  ends  were  good  and  honorable ;  their  calling  lawful 
and  urgent.  And  therefore  they  might  expect  the  blessing 
of  God  in  their  proceeding.  Yea,  though  they  should  lose 
their  lives  in  this  action,  yet  they  might  have  comfort  in 
the  same,  and  their  endeavors  would  be  honorable."^  It 
is  a  genuine  and  trustworthy  heroism  which  can  reason 
thus. 

They  pondered,  debated,  fasted,  and  prayed,  and  came 
to  the  conclusion  to  remove.     The  preparations  going  on 
around  them  for  a  renewal  of  the  war  made  them      igit. 
impatient  to  put  their  design  in  execution.     In 

,11.  J?  1  c         LiA  L  •     •  Doubts  about 

the  choice  oi  a  place  oi  settlement,  opmions  were  a  place  of 
divided.  The  Dutch  made  them  liberal  offers.^  settlement. 
Some  desired  to  follow  their  countrymen  to  Virginia, 
where  the  colony  planted  ten  years  before  had  still  a  fee- 
ble existence.  Others  would  have  gone  to  Guiana,  of 
which  the  salubrity  and  fruitfulness  were  extolled  in 
glowing  terms  by  Sir  Walter  Haleigh,  who  had  sailed  up 
the  Orinoco  twenty  years  before,  and  was  now  there  on 
a  second   visit.^      But   it  was   feared   that   the   tropical 

1  Bradford,  25,  26.  that  Robinson's  company  might  be  en- 

2  "  The  large  offers  the  Dutch  offered     couraged  to  emigrate  to  America  under 
to  us,  either  to  have  removed  into  Zea-     the  protection  of  Holland. 

land,  and  there  lived  with  them,  or,  if        3  "  We   passed   the    most   beautiful 

we  would  go  on  such  adventures,  to  go  country  that  ever  mine  eyes  beheld." 

under  them  to  Hudson's  River, (Works  of  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  H.  191.) 

and  how  they  would  freely  have  trans-  "  I  never  saw  a  more  beautiful  country, 

ported  us,  and  furnished  every  family  nor  more  lively  prospects."  (Ibid.,  207.) 

with    cattle,"   &c.      (Winslow,    Briefe  "  There  is  no  country  which  yieldeth 

Narration,  91.)     The  Dutch  proposals  more  pleasure  to  the  inhabitants."  (Ibid., 

were  perseveringly  renewed.     See,  in  229.)     "  For  health,  good  air,  pleasure, 

Brodhead's  "  History  of  New  York,"  I.  and  riches,  I  am  resolved  it  cannot  be 

125,  an  abstract  of  the  Memorial  of  the  equalled  by  any  region  either  in  the 

Amsterdam  merchants,  (February  12,  east  or  west."    (Ibid.,  230.) 
1620,)  to  the  Prince  of  Orange,  praying 
13* 


150  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

climate  of  that  country  would  ill  agree  with  the  English 
constitution ;  and  a  jealousy  was  entertained  of  the  prox- 
imity of  the  Spaniards,  who,  though  they  had  been  at 
peace  with  England  for  several  years,  continued  to  be 
regarded  with  aversion  and  dread.  On  the  other  hand, 
it  was  considered  that,  if  they  attached  themselves  to  the 
existing  colony  in  Virginia,  "  they  should  be  in  as  great 
danger  to  be  troubled  and  persecuted  for  their  cause  of 
religion  as  if  they  lived  in  England,  and  it  might  be 
worse ;  and  if  they  lived  too  far  off,  they  should  have 
neither  succor  nor  defence  from  them.  And  at  length 
the  conclusion  was  to  live  in  a  distinct  body  by 

Choice  of  -/J 

North  vir-     tliemselvcs,    under   the    general    government   of 
Virginia " ;  ^    that   is,  of  the  Virginia  Company 
in  England. 

Religious  freedom,  which  they  had  exiled  themselves 
to  enjoy,  was  the  one  thing  indispensable  for  the  future. 
But  as  yet  there  was  no  security  for  it  in  any  land  claimed 
Mission  to  hy  the  English  crown.  Two  of  their  company, 
England.  Robert  Cushman  and  John  Carver,-  were  de- 
spatched to  solicit  it  from  the  king,  to  be  enjoyed  at  some 
place  of  settlement  for  which  they  were  to  negotiate 
with  the  Virginia  Company.  They  were  the  bearers  of 
Seven  Arti-  "  Sovcu  Articlcs  whlch  the  Church  of  Leyden 
Leyd'en'*  scut  to  tho  Couucil  of  England  to  be  considered 
church.  q£"  r^^^^  £^.g^  exprcsscs  assent  to  the  doctrines 
of  the  Church  of  England ;  the  second,  a  persuasion  of 
their  practical  efficacy,  and  a  desire  to  maintain  commun- 
ion with  Churchmen ;  the  third,  an  acknowledgment  of 
the  royal  authority,  and  of  the  rightful  obedience  of  the 
subject,  "  either  active,  if  the  thing  commanded  be  not 

1  Bradford,  28.  Cmhmnn  was  found  by  Mr.  Hunter  or 

2  Of  ncithor  of  these  •worthies  is  any-  Mr.  Sumner  in  any  of  the  ])arishes  in 
thing  known  before  this  time.  There  that  quarter.  In  the  letter  of  Kohinson 
is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  either  had  and  Brewster  to  Sir  Edwin  Sandys, 
belonged  to  the  congregation  at  Scroo-  December  15,  ICl  7,  Carver  is  called  "  a 
by.     Neither  of  the  names  Carver  and  deacon  of  our  church."  (Bradford,  32.) 


Chap.  IV.]  THE  FOUNDERS   OF  PLYMOUTH.  151 

against  God's  word,  or  passive  if  it  be,  except  pardon  can 
be  obtained."^  The  fourth  and  fifth,  in  language  which 
at  the  first  reading  occasions  surprise,  but  which  was 
carefully  chosen  and  guarded,  own  the  lawfulness  of  the 
appointment  and  jurisdiction  of  ecclesiastical  officers.  The 
sixth  and  seventh  disallow  to  ecclesiastical  tribunals  any 
authority  but  w^hat  is  derived  from  the  king,  and  avow  a 
desire  "  to  give  unto  all  superiors  due  honor,  to  preserve 
the  unity  of  the  spirit  with  all  that  fear  God,  to  have 
peace  with  all  men,"  and  to  receive  instruction  wherein- 
soever they  had  erred.^ 

The  messengers  found  the  Virginia  Company  favorably 
disposed  to  their  scheme,  and  desirous  of  affording  Negotiation 
it  ample  facilities.^  The  king  was  less  tractable.  '"^°"^°"- 
Through  the  influence  of  Sir  Edwin  Sandys,  a  person 
"  of  great  authority,"  ^  son  of  that  Archbishop  of  York 
whose  tenant  Brewster  had  formerly  been  at  Scrooby,  and 
soon  afterwards  Governor  of  the  Company,  their  case 
was  favorably  presented  by  Sir  Robert  Naunton,  then 
principal  Secretary  of  State.  The  most  they  could  obtain 
from  the  king  was  a  general  encouragement  that  their 
separatism  would  be  connived  at  as  long  as  they  should 
give  no  public  offence.  An  express  engagement  even  to 
that  effect  was  denied. 

Thus  the  question  was  opened  again  ;   "  for  many  were 
afraid  that,  if  they  should  unsettle  themselves,  put  off 

1  This  was  a  distinction  familiar  to  3  "  They  were  forced,  through  the 
Robinson.  He  had  made  it,  in  nearly  great  charge  they  had  been  at,  to  heark- 
the  same  terms,  in  the  "  Just  and  en  to  any  propositions  that  might  give 
Necessary  Apology"  (Works,  III.  63).  ease  and  furtherance  to  so  hopeful  a 

2  This  curious  paper,  referred  to  in     business To  that  purpose,  it  was 

a  letter  of  Sir  Edwin  Sandys  to  Robin-  referred    to   their   considerations    how 

son  and  Brewster  (Bradford,  30),  has  necessary  it  was  that  means  might  be 

been  recently  published  in  the  "  CoUec-  used   to   draw    into   those    enterprises 

tions  of  the  Xew  York  Historical  So-  some  of  those  families  that  had  retired 

ciety"  (Second  Series,  HI.  301,  302),  themselves  into  Holland  for  scruple  of 

from  a  copy  obtained  by  Mr.  Bancroft  conscience."    (Gorges,  Briefe  Narration, 

from   the   State-Paper   Office  in  Lon-  &c.,  in  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  XXYI.  73.) 

don.  ■*  Hume,  Chap.  XLYI. 


152  HISTOrvY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

their  estates,  and  go  upon  these  hopes,  it  might  prove 
dangerous,  and  but  a  sandy  foundation."     After  renewed 
consultation,  it  was  determined  to  take  the  hazard,  and 
to  "  rest  herein  on  God's  providence,  as  they  had  done  in 
other  things."     And  again  "  messengers  were  despatched 
jpjr,      to  end  with  the  Virginia  Company  as  well  as  they 
Februarj-.    could,  aud  to  procurc  a  patent  with  as  good  and 
ample  conditions  as  they  might  by  any  good  means  at- 
tain."   An  equally  important  part  of  their  charge  was  "  to 
treat  and  conclude  with  such  merchants  and  other  friends 
as  had  manifested  their  forwardness  to  provoke  to,  and 
adventure  in,  this  voyage,"  to  the  end  of  procuring  the 
pecuniary  means  necessary  for  the  outfit  of  the  expedition. 
In  short,  money  for  the  expense  of  the  emigration  was  to 
be  raised  on  a  mortgage  of  the  labor  of  the  emigrants.^ 
The  negotiation  with  the  Virginia  Company  was  em- 
barrassed by  the  dissensions  which   now  distract- 

Parties  in  •' 

the  Virginia   ed  that  body.     Its  parlor  was  the  scene  of  a  con- 
flict  between   the    Court   and   Country    parties, 
which    divided    the   kingdom.      It  M^as  just  at  the  time 
when  Sir  Thomas  Smith,^   its  first  Governor,  withdrew 
1619.      from  his  office,  and  Sir  Edwin  Sandys,  after  an 
April  28.    acrimonious  canvass,  was  appointed  his  successor, 

1  Bradford,  29,  30.    The  messengers  same  unto  the   Council  by  our  agent, 

■were    Cushman  and   Brewster,  as  ap-  a  deacon  of  our  church,  John  Carver, 

pears  from  Cushman's  letter  of  May  8,  unto  whom  we  have  also  requested  a 

1  CI 9  (Bradford,  3G- 38).     Carver  and  gentleman  of  our   company  to  adjoin 

Cushman  had   come   back  to  Leyden  himself."      (Letter   of    Kobinson    and 

about   the   end   of  1617.      "They   do  Brewster  to  Sandys,  of  December  15, 

now  return  to  you."     (Letter  of  Sir  E.  1617,  in  Bradford,  31.) 

Sandys  to  Robinson  and  Brewster,  of  2  SJi-  Thomas  Smith  was  a  rich  city 

November  12,  1617,  in  Bradford,  30.)  merchant.  Governor  of  the  East-India 

Carver  seems  to  have  been  innnediately  Company,   the   Russia   Company,  and 

sent  again  to  England,  though  it  was  the   Company  for  the  Dis<•o^■ery  of  a 

not  till  the  second  year  after  this  that  Northwestern  Passage.     He  was  in  fa- 

the  business  was  concluded  by  Cushman  vor  with  the  court,  and  in  the  second 

and  Brewster.     "  We  have,  with  the  year  of  King  James  had  been  sent  as 

best    ."speed    and    consideration    withal  minister  to  Russia.     He  was  one  of  the 

that  we  could,  set  down  our  requests  assignees   of   Raleigh's   patent.     (Bel- 

in  writing, and  have  sent  the  knap,  Amer.  Biog.,  H.  9  et  scq.') 


Chap.  IV.]  THE  FOUNDERS  OF  PLYMOUTH.  153 

that  the  Leyden  people  were  making  their  proposals ;  and 
their  agent  wrote  to  them  that  "  the  dissensions 
and  factions  amongst  the  Council  and  Company 
of  Virginia  are  such,  as  that  since  we  came  up  no  business 
could  by  them  be  despatched."  "  These  divisions  and 
distractions  had  shaken  off  many  of  their  pretended 
friends,  and  disappointed  them  of  much  of  their  hoped 
for  and  proffered  means."  A  patent,  however,  was  at 
length  obtained  under  the  seal  of  the  Virginia 

'-^  ^  "  Patent  from 

Company,  "  not  taken  in  the  name  of  any  of  their  fie  Virginia 
own  company,  but  in  the  name  of  Mr.  John  Win- 
cob,  a  religious  gentleman  then  belonging  to  the  Countess 
of  Lincoln,  who  intended  to  go  with  them."^  Neither  the 
original  of  this,  nor  any  copy,  is  believed  to  be  extant,  nor 
has  its  date,  or  any  description  of  its  grants,  been  pre- 
served. As  the  lands  conveyed  by  it  were  not  occupied, 
it  never  acquired  practical  value. 

The  negotiation  of  the  Leyden  people  with  the  part- 
ners who  were  to  share  the  expenses  of  the  voy-  contract 
age  and  first  settlement    was    still  less  satisfac-  don',ner-' 
tory;   and  the  hardship  of  the  terms  to  which  *'''*"^^- 
they  were  reduced  shows  at  once  the  slenderness  of  their 
means  and  the  constancy  of  their  purpose.-    It  was  agreed 


1  Bradford,  36,  41.  posed  in  the  excitement  of  the  quarrel 

2  "Under  the  influence  of  this  wild  with  America.  Oi"  the  communisru  oi' the 
notion  [the  notion  of  a  Scriptural  au-  Plymouth  colonists,  enforced  for  a  time 
thority  for  the  proceeding],  the  colo-  by  their  necessities,  and  escaped  from 
nists  of  New  Plymouth,  in  imitation  of  as  soon  as  possible,  Bradford,  their  lead- 
the  primitive  Christians,  threw  all  their  er,  wrote  (135)  :  "  The  experience  that 
property  into  a  common  stock."  So  was  had  in  this  common  course  and 
wrote  Robertson  (History  of  Amer-  condition,  tried  sundry  years,  and  that 
ica,  II.  259),  utterly  misapprehending  amongst  godly  and  sober  men,  may  well 
the  transaction.  The  tone  of  Rob-  evince  the  vanity  of  that  conceit  of 
ertson's  feeble  and  erroneous  frag-  Plato's  and  other  ancients,  applauded 
ment  on  the  History  of  New  England  by  some  of  later  times,  that  the  taking 
is  taken  from  Douglas  and  Chalmers,  away  of  property,  and  bringing  in  cora- 
whom  he  constantly  quotes.  They  munity  into  a  commonwealth,  would 
were  no  friends  to  his  great  fame  who  make  them  happy  and  flourishing ;  as 
published  this  posthumous  work,  com-  if  they  were  wiser  than  God." 


154  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

to  create  a  joint-stock  company  on  the  following  plan  and 
conditions.^ 

1.  Colonists  sixteen  years  old  and  upwards,  and  persons 
contributing  ten  pounds,  were  each  to  be  owners  of  one 
share. 

2.  Colonists  contributing  ten  pounds  in  money  or  pro- 
visions were  to  be  owners  of  two  shares. 

3.  The  partnership  was  to  continue  seven  years,  to  the 
end  of  which  time  "  all  profits  and  benefits  that  are  gotten 
by  trade,  traffic,  trucking,  working,  fishing,  or  by  any 
other  means,"  w^ere  to  remain  as  common  stock. 

4.  The  settlers,  having  landed,  were  to  be  divided  into 
parties  to  be  employed  in  boat-building,  fishing,  carpentry, 
cultivation,  and  manufactures  for  the  use  of  the  colony. 

5.  At  the  end  of  seven  years,  the  capital  and  profits 
were  to  be  divided  among  the  stockholders  in  proportion 
to  their  respective  shares  in  the  investment. 

6.  Stockholders  investing  at  a  later  period  WTre  to  have 
shares  in  the  division  proportioned  to  the  duration  of  their 
interest. 

7.  Colonists  were  to  be  allowed  a  share  for  each  domes- 
tic dependant  accompanying  them  (wife,  child,  or  servant) 
more  than  sixteen  years  of  age ;  two  shares  for  every  such 
person  accompanying  them,  if  supplied  at  their  expense; 
and  half  a  share  for  every  dependant  between  ten  years 
of  age  and  sixteen. 

1  The  contract  with  Allcrton  for  a  re-  to  have  met  witli  anythinij  to  confirm 
lease,  November  15,  1G2G,  was  signed  by  his  statement  as  to  the  number  of  part- 
forty-two  partners.  (Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  ners.  Probably  the  colonists  were  not 
III.  48.)  —  Smith  saya  (Generall  His-  curious  on  the  subject,  when  they  made 
toric,  247):  "The  Adventurers  which  their  arrangement.  They  looked  to  the 
raised  the  stock  to  begin  and  supply  prominent  men  who  transacted  the  busi- 
this  plantation  were  about  seventy,  ness,  and  whom  they  believed  compe- 
some  gentlemen,  some  merchants,  some  tent  to  fulfil  any  engagements  they 
handicraftsmen,  some  adventuring  great  made  for  themselves  and  others.  Smith 
sums,  some  small,  as  their  esUitcs  and  adds :  "  The  general  stock  already  era- 
affection  served."  Smith  was  likely  to  ployed  is  about  seven  thousand  pounds"', 
be  well  informed,  but  I  do  not  recollect  which,  I  think,  must  be  an  exaggeration. 


Chap.  IV]  THE  FOUNDERS  OF  PLYMOUTH.  155 

8.  Each  child  going  out  under  ten  years  of  age  was  to 
have,  at  the  division,  fifty  acres  of  unmanured  land. 

9.  To  the  estates  of  persons  dying  before  the  expiration 
of  the  seven  years,  allowances  were  to  be  made  at  the 
division,  proportioned  to  the  length  of  their  lives  in  the 
colony. 

10.  Till  the  division,  all  colonists  were  to  be  provided 
with  food,  clothing,  and  other  necessaries,  from  the  com- 
mon stock.^ 

Two  stipulations,  supposed  by  the  colonists  to  have 
been  settled,  to  the  effect  that  they  should  have  two 
days  in  each  week  for  their  private  use,  and  that,  at  the 
division  of  the  property,  they  should  be  proprietors  of 
their  houses  and  of  the  cultivated  land  appertaining  there- 
to, w^ere  ultimately  disallowed  by  the  Merchant  Adventurers, 
to  the  great  disappointment  and  discontent  of  the  other 
party.  Cushman,  who  was  much  blamed  for  his  facility 
in  yielding  these  points,  insisted  that,  if  he  had  acted  difv 
ferently,  the  whole  undertaking  would  have  fallen  to  the 
ground.^ 

This  matter  being  concluded,  "they  had  a  solemn  meet- 
ing and  a  day  of  humiliation,  to  seek  the  Lord  preparations 
for  his  direction"  as  to  the  next  proceeding.^  As  f*^'' •departure, 
those  who  were  not  to  emigrate  at  present  were  the  larger 
number,  it  was  determined  that  the  pastor  should  remain 
with  them,  while  Brewster  should  accompany  the  pioneers, 
who  were  without  delay  to  sell  their  little  property  and 

1  Bradford,  45,  46.  Till  the  recent  AUerton,  in  Bradford,  49.)  Cushman 
important  discovery  of  the  autograph  of  defended  himself  with  some  warmth. 
Bradford's  History,  the  precise  con-  (Ibid.,  51,  60.)  "  But  these  things  gave 
ditions  of  the  partnership  were  only  not  content  at  present."  (Ibid.,  61.) 
known  from  Hubbard  (General  History  3  (Jq  this  occasion,  Robinson  took  for 
of  New  England,  Chap.  IX.),  who  had  his  text  the  words  from  1  Samuel  xxiii. 
them  from  Bradford.  3,  4  :  "  And  David's  men  said  unto  him, 

2  Not  onl}'  less  reasonable  persons,  See,  we  be  afraid  here  in  Judah ;  how 
but  Bradford  and  Robinson  were  se-  much  more,  if  we  come  to  Keilah  against 
riously  dissatisfied.  (Bradford,  45,  Rob-  the  host  of  the  Philistines.  Then  Da- 
inson's  letter  in  Bradford,  47,  and  the  vid  asked  counsel  of  the  Lord  again." 
letter  of  Fuller,  Winslow,  Bradford,  and  (Bradford,  41.) 


156 


HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAKD. 


[Book  I. 


contribute  the  proceeds  to  the  common  stock  on  the  terms 
defined  in  the  articles.  Thomas  Weston,  one  of  the  Lon- 
don partners,  came  to  Leyden  for  a  consultation  respecting 
the  details  of  the  outfit ;  and  Cushman  was  sent  over  to 
London,  and  Carver  to  Southampton,  "  to  receive  the 
money,  and  provide  for  the  voyage." 

At  length  the  time  came  when  they  were  to  leave  "  that 
Embarkation  S^^^^^Y  ^^^  plcasaut  city,  which  had  been  their 
from  Delft-     restiug-placc  near  twelve  years.     But  they  knew 

Haven.  -i       •  iiii  i 

they  were  inlfinms^  and  looked  not  much  on 
those  things,  but  lift  up  their  eyes  to  the  heavens,  their 
dearest  country,  and  quieted  their  spirits."  A  little  ves- 
sel which  they  had  purchased,  called  the  Speedwell,  lay  at 
Delft-Haven,  on  the  river  Maese,  fourteen  miles  off.  The 
voyagers  and  their  friends  held  their  last  religious  service 
together,  "  pouring  out  prayers  to  the  Lord  with  great  fer- 
vency, mixed  with  abundance  of  tears."  -^    "  When  the  ship 


1  Bradford,  59.  Robinson  preached 
from  these  words  (Ezra  vlii.  21) : 
"  There,  at  the  river  Ahava,  I  pro- 
claimed a  fast,  that  we  might  humble 
ourselves  before  our  God,  and  seek  of 
him  a  right  way  for  us,  and  for  our  chil- 
dren, and  for  all  our  substance."  This 
sermon  has  been  represented  by  late 
writers,  not  without  probability,  but 
without  authority,  to  have  been  the 
vehicle  of  that  "  wholesome  counsel " 
which  Winslow,  writing  twenty-five 
years  afterwards,  reported  to  have  been 
given  by  Robinson  to  his  flock  "at  their 
departure;  from  liini  to  begin  the  givat 
work  of  plantation  in  New  England." 
The  "  counsel,"  whether  given  in  the 
sermon  in  question,  or  otherwise,  is 
instinct  with  the  most  enlightened, 
pure,  and  gentle  Christian  philoso])hy. 

"  Amongst  other  wholesome  instruc- 
tions and  exhortations  he  used  these  ex- 
pressions, or  to  the  same  purpose  :  — 

"  We  are  now  ere  long  to  part  asun- 
der, and  the   Lord   knoweth   whether 


ever  he  should  live  to  see  our  faces 
again.  But  whether  the  Lord  had  ap- 
pointed it  or  not,  he  charged  us  before 
God  and  his  blessed  angels,  to  follow 
him  no  further  than  he  followed  Christ ; 
and  if  God  should  reveal  anjlhing  to 
us  by  any  other  instrument  of  his,  to 
be  as  read}-  to  receive  it  as  ever  we 
were  to  receive  any  truth  by  his  minis- 
try ;  for  he  was  very  confident  the  Lord 
had  more  truth  and  light  yet  to  break 
forth  out  of  his  holy  word.  He  took 
occasion  also  miserably  to  bewail  the 
state  and  condition  of  the  Reformed 
churches,  Avho  were  come  to  a  period 
in  religion,  and  would  go  no  further 
than  the  instruments  of  their  Reforma- 
tion. As,  for  example,  the  Lutherans, 
they  could  not  be  drawn  to  go  beyond 
what  Luther  saw  ;  for  whatever  part  of 
God's  will  he  had  further  imparted  and 
revealed  to  Calvin,  they  will  rather  die 
than  embrace  it.  And  so  also,  saith 
he,  you  see  the  Calvinists,  they  stick 
where  he  left  them ;  a  misery  umch  to 


ClIAP.  IV.] 


THE  FOUNDERS  OF  PLYMOUTH. 


157 


was  ready  to  carry  us  away,"  says  Winslow,  "  the  brethren 
that  stayed  having  again  solemnly  sought  the  Lord  with 
us  and  for  us,  and  we  solemnly  engaging  ourselves  mutu- 
ally as  before,^  they  that  stayed  at  Leyden  feasted  us 
that  were  to  go  at  our  pastor's  house,  being  large,  where 
we  refreshed  ourselves,  after  tears,  with  singing  of  psalms, 
making  joyful  melody  in  our  hearts  as  well  as  with  the 
voice,  there  being  many  of  the  congregation  very  expert 
in  music.  And  indeed  it  was  the  sweetest  melody  that 
ever  mine  ears  heard.  After  this  they  accompanied  us  to 
Delft-Haven,  where  we  were  to  embark,  and  there  feasted 
us  again ;  and  after  prayer  performed  by  our  pastor,  where 
a  flood  of  tears  was  poured  out,  they  accompanied  us  to 
the  ship,  but  were  not  able  to  speak  one  to  another  for 
the  abundance  of  sorrow  to  part.  But  we  only  going 
aboard,  (the  ship  lying  to  the  quay,  and  ready  to  set  sail, 


be  lamented ;  for  though  they  vreve 
precious  shining  lights  in  their  times, 
yet  God  had  not  revealed  his  whole 
•will  to  them ;  and  were  they  now  liv- 
ing, saith  he,  they  would  be  as  ready 
and  willing  to  embrace  further  light, 
as  that  they  had  received.  Here  also 
he  puts  us  in  mind  of  our  church  cov- 
enant, at  least  that  part  of  it  whereby 
we  promise  and  covenant  with  God,  and 
one  with  another,  to  receive  whatso- 
ever light  or  truth  shall  be  made  known 
to  us  from  his  written  word ;  but  withal 
exhorted  us  to  takre  heed  what  we  re- 
ceived for  truth,  and  well  to  examine 
and  compare  it  and  weigh  it  with  other 
Scriptures  of  truth  before  we  received 
it.  For,  saith  he,  it  is  not  possible  the 
Christian  world  should  come  so  lately 
out  of  such  thick  Antichristian  dark- 
ness, and  that  full  perfection  of  knowl- 
edge should  break  forth  at  once." 
(Briefe  Narration,  97,  98.) 

The  e^ipression  of  such  sentiments, 
if  it  could  be  traced  no  further  back 
than  to  the  time  of  the  record  which 
has  come  down  to  us,  would  be  a  notice- 

VOL.  I.  14 


able  and  an  admirable  fact ;  but  on 
such  evidence  as  Winslow's  it  may  seem 
that  there  need  be  no  hesitation  in 
ascribing  the  general  strain  of  thought 
to  Robinson,  though  one  wishes  that 
there  was  more  proof  of  the  verbal  ex- 
actness of  the  rejjort.  Winslow  may, 
at  the  time,  have  written  down  what 
he  heard.  Robinson  may  have  fur- 
nished it  afterwards  in  writing  to  his 
friends,  though  this  is  less  likely,  as 
Winslow's  language  is :  "  He  used  these 
expressions,  or  to  the  same  purpose." 
Mather  (Book  I.  Chap.  HI.),  Prince 
(176),  and  Neal  (History  of  the  Puri- 
tans, Part  II.  Chap.  II.),  all  copied 
from  Winslow. 

^  These  engagements  were,  that,  "  if 
the  Lord  should  frown  upon  our  pro- 
ceedings, then  those  that  went  to  return, 
and  the  brethren  that  remained  still 
there  to  assist  and  be  helpful  to  them ; 
but  if  God  should  be  pleased  to  favor 
them  that  went,  then  they  also  should 
endeavor  to  help  over  such  as  were 
poor  and  ancient,  and  willing  to  come." 
(Briefe  Narration,  90.) 


158 


HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 


[Book  I. 


the  wind  being  fair,)  we  gave  them  a  volley  of  small  shot 
and  three  pieces  of  ordnance  ;  and  so,  lifting  up  our  hands 
1620       to  each  other,  and  our  hearts  for  each  other  to 
July 22.     ^]^g  Lq^.(J  q^^j,  Qq(J^  ^^g  departed."^ 

The  Speedwell  brought  her  passengers  prosperously  to 
Southampton,  where  they  found  the  Mayflower,  which  ves- 
Arrivai  at  sel  liad  come.  round  from  London  with  Cushman 
Southampton.  ^^^^  othors  a  wcck  before.  Weston,  on  the  part 
of  the  Adventurers,  was  there  to  see  them  ofl*.  The  dis- 
cussion respecting  the  disputed  articles  was  renewed  with 
him,  but  to  no  efliect ;  and  they  had  now  gone  so  far  that 
they  could  neither  retreat  nor  pause.-  When  about  to 
sail,  they  were  assembled  to  receive  one  more  proof  of 
the  wisdom  and  affection  of  their  pastor,  in  a  letter  full  of 
excellent  counsel,  urging  the  obligation  of  cultivating  a 


1  Briefe  Narration,  91.  —  Bradford 
(60)  adds  some  touches  to  the  pic- 
ture :  "  Sundry  also  came  from  Am- 
sterdam to  see  them  shipped,  and  to 
take  their  leave  of  them."  The  night 
before  the  embarkation  "was  spent  with 
little  sleep  by  the  most,  but  with  friend- 
ly entertainment  and  Christian  dis- 
course and  other  real  expressions  of 
true  Christian  love.  The  next  day,  the 
wind  being  fair,  they  went  aboard,  and 
their  friends  with  them,  where  truly 
doleful  was  the  sight  of  that  sad  and 
mournful  parting;  to  see  what  sighs 
and  sobs  did  sound  amongst  them ;  what 
tears  did  gush  from  every  eye,  and 
pithy  speeches  pierced  each  heart ;  that 
sundry  of  the  Dutch  strangers  that  stood 
on  the  quay  as  spectators  could  not  re- 
frain from  tears.  Yet  comfortable  and 
sweet  it  was,  to  see  such  lively  and  true 
expressions  of  dear  and  unfeigned  love. 
But  the  tide,  which  stays  for  no  man, 
calling  them  away  that  were  thus  loath 
to  depart,  their  reverend  pastor  falling 
down  on  his  knees,  and  they  all  with 
him,  with  watery  cheeks  commended 
them  with  most  fervent  prayers  to  the 


Lord  and  his  blessing.  And  then  with 
mutual  embraces,  and  many  tears,  they 
took  their  leaves  one  of  another." 

2  "  This  was  the  first  ground  of  dis- 
content between  them."  (Bradford, 
61.)  Weston  would  make  them  no 
advance,  and  they  had  to  raise  money 
by  selling  some  of  their  provisions,  and 
to  go  away  "  scarce  having  any  butter, 
no  oil,  nor  a  sole  to  mend  a  shoe,  nor 
every  man  a  sword  to  his  side,  wanting 
many  muskets,  much  armor,"  &c.  They 
protested  that  the  objectionable  articles 
Avere  "  made  by  Robert  Cushman  with- 
out their  commission  or  knowledge." 
(Letter  to  the  Adventurers,  ibid.)  — 
Prince  says  (under  July  22,  1620), 
"  Seven  hundred  pounds  sterling  are 
laid  out  at  Southampton,  and  they 
carry  about  seventeen  hundred  pounds' 
venture  with  them";  and  for  this  he 
refers  to  Bradford.  But  I  do  not  find 
that  Bradford  has  made  the  latter  state- 
ment. The  former  I  suppose  Prince 
inferred  from  Cushman's  complaint  of 
^Martin's  mismanagement,  in  his  letter 
to  Edward  Southworth  (Bradlbrd,  72). 


Chap.  IV.]  THE  FOUNDERS   OF  PLYMOUTH.  159 

generous  spirit,  and  of  carefully  watching  against  occa- 
sions of  strife,  in  the  new  circumstances  which  were  to 
put  their  virtue  to  the  proof  The  letter  "  had  good  ac- 
ceptation with  all,  and  after  fruit  with  many."  ^ 

The  vessels  put  to  sea  with  about  a  hundred  and  twen- 
ty passengers.     For  each  vessel  they  "  chose  a  governor 
and  two  or  three  assistants,  to  order  the  people  Departure 
by  the  way,  and  to  see  to  the  disposins:  of  their  ^'""^  ^°'"''" 

•'  •  i  o  ampton. 

provisions    and   such   like    affairs."      The   May-     August 

7,  r«  1  •  circ.  5. 

flower  was  of  a  hundred  and  eighty  tons'  bur- 
den ;  the  Speedwell,  of  sixty.  Before  they  had  proceeded 
far  on  the  voyage,  the  Speedwell  proved  so  leaky  that  it 
was  thought  prudent  to  return,  and  both  vessels  put  in 
at  Dartmouth.  Repairs  having  been  made,  they  sailed  a 
second  time.     But  ao^ain,  when  they  were  a  hun-  ^  ., 

c  '  •'  Failure  of 

dred  leagues  from  land,  the  master  of  the  smaller  tiio  speed- 
vessel  represented  her  as  incapable  of  making  the 
voyage,  and  they  put  back  to  Plymouth.  This  was  after- 
wards believed  to  be  a  pretence  of  the  master,  who  had 
been  engaged  to  remain  a  year  with  the  emigrants,  and 
who  had  repented  of  his  contract.  The  next  resource 
was  to  divide  the  company,  and  leave  a  portion  behind, 
while  the  rest  should  pursue  their  voyage  in  the  larger 
ship.  This  arrangement  was  presently  made.  The  Speed- 
well was   sent  back  to   London,   and  the  May-  ^  .,.     ,  ^ 

'  •'       Sailing  of  the 

flower  "  put  to  sea  again  with  a  prosperous  Mayflower. 
wind."  "  Those  that  went  back  were  for  the 
most  part  such  as  were  willing  so  to  do,  either  out  of 
some  discontent  or  fear  they  conceived  of  the  ill  success 
of  the  voyage,  seeing  so  many  crosses  befall,  and  the  year 
time  so  far  spent ;  but  others,  in  regard  of  their  ow^n  weak- 
ness and  charge  of  many  young  children,  were  thought 
least  useful,  and  most  unfit  to  bear  the  brunt  of  this  hard 
adventure,  unto  which  work  of  God  and  judgment  of  their 

1  For  this  admirable  letter,  and  a  private  letter  to  Carver  which  accom- 
panied it,  see  Bradford,  63-67. 


IGO  HISTORY   OF    NEW   ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

brethren  they  were  contented  to  submit.  And  thus,  like 
Gideon's  army,  this  small  number  was  divided,  as  if  the 
Lord,  by  this  work  of  his  providence,  thought  these  few 
too  many  for  the  great  work  he  had  to  do."  ^ 

The  colonists, —  men,  women,  and  children, — who  were 
now  embarked  on  board  the  ]\Iayflower,  were  a  hundred 
Origin  of  and  two  in  number.  Concerning  very  few  of 
gerin'the'""  ^hcm  is  it  known  to  this  day  from  what  English 
Mayflower,  j^omcs  they  cauic.  Bradford  and  Brewster  alone 
are  ascertained  to  have  been  members  of  the  Scrooby  con- 
gregation.- During  its  residence  in  Leyden,  that  com- 
pany had  received  numerous  accessions  of  Englishmen, 
who  had  either  passed  over  for  the  purpose  of  attaching 
themselves  to  it,  or  who,  being  in  Holland  for  other  pur- 
poses, had  come  within  its  attraction.  Winslow,  who  was 
superior  in  condition  to  all  or  most  of  his  companions,^  is 
believed  to  have  become  acquainted  with  Robinson  while 
on  his  travels  in  Holland ;  and  at  twenty-two  years  of  age 
he  joined  the  society,  three  years  before  the  emigration.^ 
The  "  cautionary  towns  "  of  the  Netherlands  had  been  gar- 
risoned by  British  regiments  for  thirty  years,  and  Miles 


1  Bradford,  69,  70.  —  Among  those  tions  in  and  about  Bawtrj-,  found  Pnesi 
■who  now  -withdrew  "  out  of  some  dis-  and  Soule  respectively  within  three  and 
content"  were  "Mr.  Cushman  and  his  six  miles  of  it,  and  Tinker  and  Lister 
family,  whose  heart  and  courage  was  in  the  town.  The  name  Lister  was  on 
gone  from  them  before."  Martin  was  costly  tombs.  But  Edward  Lister,  or 
"•Governor  in  the  bigger  ship,"  and  Litster,  who  came  in  the  Mayflower, 
Cushman,  who  was  his  "  assistant,"  was  was  Mr.  Hopkins's  servant, 
displeased  with  his  administration.  (Let-  3  «  A  gentleman  of  the  best  family  of 
ter  of  Cushman,  in  Bradford,  72.)  Brad-  any  of  the  Plymouth  planters."  (Ilutch- 
ford,  while  he  found  some  of  Cushman's  inson.  History  of  Massachusetts,  L  1 72.) 
conduct  to  "  discover  some  infirmities,  "  Of  a  very  reputable  family."  (Ibid., 
as  who  under  temptation  is  free  ?  "  fails  IL  408.) 

not  to  record  that  " he  continued  to  be  ^  "  I   li\ing  three   years   under  his 

a  special  instrument   for  their   good,"  ministry,  before  we  began  the  work  of 

and  "a  loving  friend  and  faithful  brother  plantation  in  New  England."     (Bricfe 

unto  thorn."  Narration,  93.)     Winslow  was  born  at 

2  Of  surnames  borne  by  passengers  Droitwich,  in  "Worcestershire,  October 
in  the  Mayflower,  Mr.  George  Sumner,  17,  1595.     (Young,  Pilgrims,  274.) 
who,  in  1851,  made  diligent  investiga- 


Chap.  IV.]  TIIE  FOUNDERS   OF  PLYMOUTH.  161 

Standish  had  probably  been  employed  on  this  service. 
He  was  not  a  member  of  the  Leyden  church,  nor  subse- 
quently of  that  of  Plymouth,  but  appears  to  have  been  in- 
duced to  join  the  emigrants  by  personal  good-will  or  by 
love  of  adventure,  while  to  them  his  military  knowledge 
and  habits  rendered  his  companionship  of  great  value.^ 
In  determining  the  question  as  to  which  portion  of  the 
congregation  should  first  emigrate,  it  was  arranged  for 
"the  youngest  and  strongest  part  to  go."^  The  youngest 
and  strongest  would  generally  be  those  who  had  joined 
the  society  most  recently,  while  they  who  were  excused 
from  the  first  enterprise  by  reason  of  their  being  advanced 
in  years  would,  on  the  whole,  be  the  same  persons  whose 
more  ancient  relations  to  Robinson  in  England  would  be 
a  reason  for  their  desiring,  and  being  allowed,  to  decline 
a  separation  from  him.  The  Leyden  church  had  received 
members  of  Dutch  and  French  birth,  and,  among  the 
company  in  the  Mayflower,  Margeson  was  probably  a 
Hollander.^  Warren,  Hopkins,  Billington,  Dotey,  and 
Lister  appear  to  have  joined  the  expedition  in  England. 


1  Standish  gave  the  name  of  Dux-  twenty  years  ago,  Mr.  Frank  Hall  Stan- 
bury  to  the  town  which  he  began  on  dish,  "  of  Duxbury  Hall,"  bequeathed  a 
the  north  side  of  Plymouth  harbor,  and  collection  of  pictures  and  engravings  to 
an  English  family  of  the  name  of  Stan-  King  Louis-Phihppe. 
dish  has  its  ancestral  seat  at  Duxbury  2  Briefe  Narration,  90. 
Hall  in  Lancashire ;  from  which  coinci-  ^  "  Divers  of  their  members  [mem- 

dence  it  has  been  inferred,  with  much     bers  of  the  Dutch  churches] 

probability,  that  Miles  Standish  was  of  betook  themselves  to  the  communion  of 

that    race.     (Young,    Pilgrims,    125.)  our  church,  went  with  us  to  New  Eng- 

Morton    (Memorial,    162)    says:    "He  land,  as  Godbert  Godbertson, &c. 


was  a  gentleman  born  in  Lancashire,  One  Samuel  Terry  was  received  from 

and  was  heir  apparent  unto  a  great  es-  the  French  church  there  into  commun- 

tate  of  lands  and  livings."    By  his  will,  ion  with  us There  is  also  one 

Standish  devised  to  "  his  son  and  heir  Philip  Delanoy,  born  of  French  parents, 

apparent"  certain  lands  given,  he  says,  came  to  us  from  Leyden  to  New  Ply- 

"  to  me  as  right  heir  by  lawful  descent,  mouth."      (Ibid.,    95,   96.)      Delanoy, 

but  surreptitiously  detained  from  me,  since  called  Delano,  came  in  the  For- 

my  great-grandfather  being  a  second  or  tune,  in  1621  ;    Godbertson,  or  Cuth- 

younger  brother  from  the  house  of  Stan-  bertson,  in  the  Ann,  in  1623. 
dish  of  Standish."  —  Some   fifteen  or 
U* 


162  HISTORY   OF  KEW   ENGLAND.  [Rook  I. 

Martin  "  came  from  Billerica,  in  Essex,  from  which  county 
came  several  others,  as  also  from  London  and  other  places, 
to  go  with  them."^  Alden  was  of  Southampton."  Am- 
sterdam probably  made  some  contribution  to  the  com- 
pany.^ "  Many  of  you,"  wrote  Robinson  to  them  while 
at  Southampton,  "  arc  strangers,  as  to  the  persons,  so  to 
the  infirmities,  one  of  another,  and  so  stand  in  need  of 
more  watchfulness  this  way."^ 

Little  is  recorded  of  the  incidents  of  the  voyage.  The 
first  part  was  favorably  made.  As  the  wanderers  ap- 
proached the  American  continent,  they  encountered 
storms  which  their  overburdened  vessel  was  scarcely  able 
to  sustain.  Their  destination  was  to  a  point  near  Hud- 
son E,iver,^  yet  within  the  territory  of  the  London  Com- 
pany, by  which  their  patent  had  been  granted.  This  de- 
scription corresponds  to  no  other  country  than  the  sea- 
coast  of  the  State  of  New  Jersey.  At  early  dawn  of  the 
sixty-fourth  day  of  their  voyage,  they  came  in  sight 
of  the  white  sand-banks  of  Cape  Cod.  In  pursu- 
ance of  their  original  purpos.e,  they  veered  to  the  south, 
but,  by  the  middle  of  the  day,  they  found  themselves 
"among  perilous  shoals  and  breakers,"  which  caused  them- 
to  retrace  their  course.*^  An  opinion  afterwards  prevailed, 
on  questionable  grounds,  that  they  had  been  purposely 
led  astray  by  the  master  of  the  vessel,  induced  by  a  bribe 
from  the  Dutch,  who  were  averse  to  having  them  near 

1  "  There  waf5one  chosen  in  England  Captain  Standish  witli  Priscilla  Mulhns, 
to  be  joined"  Avith  Carver  and  Cushnian.  having  been  rashly  sent  by  the  Captain 
"  His  name  was  Mr.  Martin.  lie  came  to  that  lady  on  the  errand  of  Viola  in 
from  Billerica,"  &c.     (Bradford,  5G.)  "  Twelfth  Night." 

2  "John    Aldon    was    hired    for    a         3  Cushman,  in  Bradford,  53,  57. 
cooper,    at    Southampton,    where    the         *  Ibid.,  CG. 

ship   victualled,   and,  being  a  hopeful  ^  u  ^o   find   some   place   about   the 

vountr  man,  was  much  desired,  but  left  Hudson's  River   for  their  habitations." 

to  his  own  liking  to  go  or  stay  when  he  (Ibid.,  77.) 

came  here;  but  he  stayed  and  married  .  ^  The  "perilous  shoals"  were  perhaps 

here."    (Bradford,  449.)     Tradition  re-  those  of  the  island  of  INIonomoy,  near 

ports  that  he  was  the  successful  rival  of  Chatham;  perhaps  Nantucket  Shoals. 


Chap.  IV] 


THE   FOUNDERS   OF  PLYMOUTH. 


163 


the  mouth  of  the  Hudson,^   which   Dutch  vessels  had 
begun  to  visit  for  trade. 


1  "  Their  putting  into  this  place  was 
partly  by  reason  of  a  storm,  by  which 
they  were  forced  in,  but  more  especially 
by  the  fraudulency  and  contrivance  of 
Mr.  Jones,  the  master  of  the  ship,  for 
their  intention,  as  before  noted,  and  his 
engagement,  was  to  Hudson's  River. 
But  some  of  the  Dutch,  having  notice 
of  their  intentions,  and  having  thoughts 
about  the  same  time  of  erecting  a  plan- 
tation there  likewise,  they  fraudulently 
hired  the  said  Jones  by  delay  while  they 
were  in  England,  and  now  under  pre- 
tence of  the  danger  of  the  shoals,  &c., 
to  disappoint  them  in  their  going  thither. 

Of  this  plot  betwixt  the  Dutch 

and  Mr.  Jones,  I  have  had  late  and 
certain  intelligence."  So,  in  1669,  wrote 
the  honest  but  not  over-cautious  Na- 
thaniel Morton  (Memorial,  p.  34),  who 
has  often  been  quoted  since.  But  there 
is  no  contemporary  statement  to  this 
effect,  and,  had  the  story  been  early  re- 
ceived, it  would  seem  that  Morton,  who 
was  Bradford's  nephew,  would  not  have 
needed  to  have  "  late  "  intelligence  of  it 
On  the  other  hand,  it  seems  singular 


that,  when  the  coast  had  been  so  long 
known,  the  captain,  who,  if  he  had  not 
before  been  upon  it,  was  accompanied  by 
persons  who  had  been  (Clark,  his  mate, 
and  Coppin,  if  no  others),  should  have 
unintentionally  gone  so  far  out  of  his 
way.  And  it  may  be,  as  has  been  sur- 
mised, that  Morton  had  his  "late"  intelli- 
gence from  Thomas  Willett,  who  was  in 
the  way  of  good  information.  Four 
years  before  Morton  published  his  book. 
New  Amsterdam  was  taken  b}'  the  Eng- 
lish, and  Willett  was  made  its  first 
Mayor,  its  name  being  then  changed 
to  New  York.  In  the  expedition,  he 
had  a  command  in  the  force  raised  by 
Plymouth,  where  he  had  been  many 
years  a  magistrate,  and  whither  he 
returned  about  the  time  of  Morton's 
publication.  He  is  first  spoken  of  by 
Bradford  (260)  as  "  an  honest  young 
man,  that  came  from  Leyden,"  where 
also  he  might  have  heard  the  story. 
But,  as  it  stands,  it  certainly  docs  not 
rest  upon  sufficient  evidence  to  entitle 
it  to  full  credit. 


CHAPTER   V. 


The  narrow  peninsula,  sixty  miles  long,  which  termi- 
nates in  Cape  Cod,  projects  eastwardly  from  the  main- 
land of  Massachusetts,  in  shape  resembling  the  human 
arm  bent  rectangularly  at  the  elbow  and  again  at  the 
The  May-  wrlst.  lu  tlio  baslu  enclosed  landward  by  the 
flower  at      extromc  point  of  this  projection,  in  the  roadstead 

1C20.  of  what  is  now  Provincetown,  the  Mayflow^er 
dropped  her  anchor  at  noon  on  a  Saturday  near 
the  close  of  autumn.  The  exigencies  of  a  position  so 
singular  demanded  an  organization  adequate  to  the  pres- 
ervation of  order  and  of  the  common  safety,  and  the  fol- 
lowing instrument  was  prepared  and  signed : '  — 


1  "  This  day,  before  we  came  to  har- 
bor, observing  some  not  well  affected  to 
unity  and  concord,  but  gave  some  ap- 
pearance of  faction,  it  was  thought  good 
there  should  be  an  association  and  agree- 
ment, that  we  should  combine  together 
in  one  body,  and  to  submit  to  such  gov- 
ernment and  governors  as  we  should 
by  common  consent  agree  to  make  and 
choose,  and  set  our  hands  to  this  that 
follows,  word  for  word."  (Mourt's  Re- 
lation, 3.)  —  "  Some  of  the  strangers 
among  them  had  let  fall  from  them  in 
the  ship,  that,  when  they  came  ashore, 
they  would  use  their  own  liberty,  for 
none  hatl  power  to  command  them,  the 
patent  they  had  ])eing  for  Virginia,  and 
not  for  New  England,  which  belonged 
to  another  government,  with  which  the 
Virginia  Company  had  nothing  to  do." 
(Bradford,  History,  89.)  —  Morton 
(Memorial,  Davis's  edit.,  38)  appends 
to  the  instrument  forty-one  names.    lie 


doubtless  took  the  compact  from  Brad- 
ford's History  or  Mourt's  Relation,  nei- 
ther of  which  contains  names  of  sub- 
scribers. Bradford's  list  (447-450)  of 
male  passengers  in  the  Mayflower  has 
seven  names  of  males,  apparently  adults, 
additional  to  those  of  the  signers  in 
^Morton.  They  are  Roger  Wilder,  Elias 
Story,  Solomon  Prower,  John  Lange- 
morc,  Robert  Carter,  ^Villiam  Holbeck, 
and  Edward  Thomson.  If  to  these  be 
added  "two  seamen  hired  to  stay  a 
year  here  in  the  country,  "William  Tre- 
vore  and  one  Ely,"  who,  "  when  their 
time  was  out,  both  returned"  (Ibid., 
450),  we  have,  including  the  women 
and  children  mentioned  by  Bradford,  a 
hnnilrcd  and  two  for  the  tot<al  number 
of  the  company.  Tlie  same  number 
came  to  laiul  as  had  left  England.  One 
(William  Button)  died,  and  one  (Ocea- 
nus  Hopkins)  was  born,  on  the  passage. 
Mourt's  "Relation  or  Journal,"  quoted 


Chap.  V.]  PLYMOUTH.  165 

"  111  the  name  of  God,  amen.  We,  whose  names  are 
underwritten,  the  loyal  subjects  of  our  dread  sov-  compact  for 
ereign  lord,  King  James,  by  the  grace  of  God,  of  g"^""'"^"^- 
Great  Britain,  France,  and  Ireland  King,  Defender  of  the 
Faith,  &c.,  having  undertaken,  for  the  glory  of  God,  and 
advancement  of  the  Christian  faith,  and  honor  of  our 
king  and  country,  a  voyage  to  plant  the  first  colony  in 
the  northern  parts  of  Virginia,  do  by  these  presents,  sol- 
emnly and  mutually,  in  the  presence  of  God  and  one  of 
another,  covenant  and  combine  ourselves  together  into  a 
civil  body  politic,  for  our  better  ordering  and  preservation, 
and  furtherance  of  the  ends  aforesaid ;  and  by  virtue  here- 
of to  enact,  constitute,  and  frame  such  just  and  equal 
laws,  ordinances,  acts,  constitutions,  and  offices,  from  time 
to  time,  as  shall  be  thought  most  meet  and  convenient  for 
the  general  good  of  the  colony ;  unto  which  we  promise 
all  due  submission  and  obedience.  In  witness  whereof  we 
have  hereunder  subscribed  our  names,  at  Cape  Cod,  the 
11th  of  November,  in  the  year  of  the  reign  of  our  sov- 
ereign lord.  King  James,  of  England,  France,  and  Ire- 
land the  eighteenth,  and  of  Scotland  the  fifty-fourth.  Anno 
Domini  1620." 

•Such  was  the  beginning  of  the  Colony  of  Plymouth. 
To  the  end  of  its  separate  history,  it  continued  to  be  an 
humble  community  in  numbers  and  in  wealth.  When 
four  years  had  passed,  the  village  consisted  of  only  thirty- 
two  cabins,  inhabited  by  a  hundred  and  eighty  persons. 
The  government  of  the  company  was  prescribed  by  the 
majority  of  voices,  and  administered  by  one  of  its  mem- 
above,  contains  a  detailed  account  of  grims,  113)  understands  Mourt  to  have 
proceedings  from  the  time  of  the  land-  been  George  Morton  (brother-in-law  of 
ing  to  the  close  of  September  in  the  Governor  Bradford),  who  had  been  one 
following  year.  It  was  sent  from  Ply-  of  the  Leyden  congregation  (Bradford, 
mouth  in  December,  1621,  and  pub-  48),  and  who  emigrated  to  Plymouth 
hshed  in  London  in  1G22.  It  takes  its  in  July,  1623.  With  equally  plausible 
name  from  a  preface  signed  "G.  Mourt,"  arguments,  he  attributes  the  author- 
a  name  otherwise  unknown.  On  strong  ship  of  the  work  to  Bradford  and 
grounds  of  probability,  Dr.  Young  (Pil-     Wiuslow. 


1G6  HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

bcrs,  "with  another  for  his  Assistant.  It  was  not  so 
much  a  commonwealth  as  a  factory,  of  which  the  head 
bore  the  title  of  Governor.  Six  years  later,  it  num- 
bered three  hundred  persons ;  five  years  after  this,  it  had 
added  two  hundred  more ;  and,  at  the  end  of  its  life  of 
seventy  years,  its  population,  scattered  through  several 
towns,  had  probably  not  come  to  exceed  eight  thousand. 
It  is  on  account  of  the  virtue  displayed  in  its  institution 
and  management,  and  of  the  great  consequences  to  which 
it  ultimately  led,  that  the  Colony  of  Plymouth  claims  the 
attention  of  mankind.  In  any  other  view,  its  records 
would  be  unattractive.  The  building  of  log  hovels,  the 
turning  of  sand-heaps  into  corn-fields,  dealings  with  stupid 
Indians  and  with  overreaching  partners  in  trade,  anxious 
struggles  to  get  a  living,  and,  at  most,  the  suff"erings  of 
men,  women,  and  children,  wasting  under  cold,  sickness, 
and  famine,  feebly  supply,  as  the  staple  of  a  history,  the 
place  of  those  splendid  exhibitions  of  power,  and  those 
critical  conflicts  of  intrigue  and  war,  which  fill  the  annals 
of  great  empires.  But  no  higher  stake  is  played  for  in 
the  largest  sphere,  than  the  life  of  a  body  politic ;  nor  can 
the  most  heroic  man  be  moved  by  any  nobler  impulse 
than  the  sense  of  patriotic  and  religious  obligation ;  nor 
is  the  merit  of  that  constancy,  which  makes  no  account  of 
sacrifice  and  suffering,  to  be  estimated  by  the  size  of  the 
theatre  on  which  it  is  displayed.  And  the  homely  story 
of  the  planters  of  Plymouth  will  not  fail  to  have  interest 
for  those  readers  who  are  able  to  discriminate  what  is  most 
excellent  in  human  nature  from  its  adjuncts,  or  for  such 
as  delight  to  trace  the  method  of  Providence  in  educing 
results  of  the  largest  benefit  to  mankind  from  the  simple 
element  of  devotion  to  right  and  duty  in  lowly  mcn.^ 
At  the  time  of  the  adoption  of  the  compact  for  a  gov- 

1  "  Small  thinjTS  in  the  hp^inninjr  of    (Dudley's    Letter   to   the    Countess  of 
natural  or  politic  liodies  are  as  remark-     Lincoln,  in  1G3U.) 
able  as  greater  in  bodies  full  grown." 


Chap.  V.]  PLYMOUTH.  167 


.  1 


eminent,  Carver  was  chosen  Governor  of  the  company. 
In  the  afternoon,  "  fifteen  or  sixteen  men,  well  ^ 

'  '  Carver 

armed,"   were  sent  on  shore  to  reconnoitre  and  f''0''en 
collect  fuel.     They  returned  at  evening,  report- 
ing that  they  had  seen  neither  person  nor  dwelling,  but 
that  the  country  was  well  wooded,  and  that  the  appear- 
ance as  to  soil  was  promising. 

Having  kept  their  Sabbath  in  due  retirement,  the  men 
began  the  labors  of  the  week  by  landing  a  shal-    Nov.  13. 
lop  from  the  ship  and  hauling  it  up  the  beach  fauon'^ofthe 
for  repairs,  while  the  women"  went  on  shore  to  '=°""'''y- 
wash  clothes.     While  the  carpenter  and  his  men  were  at 
work  on  the  boat,  sixteen  others,  armed  and  provisioned, 
with  Standish  for  their  commander,   set  off  on 
foot  to  explore  the  country.     The  only  incident 
of  this  day  was  the  sight  of  five  or  six  savages,  who  on 
their  approach  ran  away  too  swiftly  to  be  overtaken.     At 
night,  lighting  a  fire  and  setting  a  guard,  the  party  biv- 
ouacked at  the  distance,  as  they  supposed,  of  ten  miles 
from  their   vessel.      Proceeding  southward  next 
morning,    they   observed    marks    of   cultivation, 
some  heaps  of  earth,  which  they  took  for  signs  of  graves, 
and  the  remains  of  a  hut,  with  "  a  great  kettle,  which  had 
been  some  ship's  kettle."     In  a  heap  which  they  opened, 
they  found  two  baskets  containing  four  or  five  bushels  of 
Indian  corn,  of  which  they  took  as  much  as  they  could 
carry  away  in  their  pockets  and  in  the  kettle.     Further 
on,  they  saw  two  canoes,  and  "  an  old  fort  or  palisado, 
made  by  some  Christians,"  as  they  thought.     The  second 
night,  which  was  rainy,  they  encamped  again,  with  more 
precautions  than  before.    On  Friday  evening,  hav- 
ing lost  their  way  meanwhile,  and  been  amused 
by  an  accident  to  Bradford,  who  was  caught  in  an  Indian 

1  Bradford,  99.  eighteen  of  whom  were  wives  of  eml- 

2  Including    children,     there    were     grants, 
twenty-eight  females  in  the  company, 


168  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Rook  I. 

deer-trap,  they  returned  to  their  friends  "  both  weary  and 
welcome,  and  delivered  in  their  corn  into  the  store  to  be 
kept  for  seed,  for  they  knew  not  how  to  come  by  any,  and 
therefore  were  very  glad,  proposing,  so  soon  as  they  could 
meet  with  any  of  the  inhabitants  of  that  place,  to  make 
them  large  satisfaction."^ 

The  succeeding  week  was  spent  in  putting  their  tools 

in  order  and  preparing  timber  for  a  new  boat.     During 

this  time,  which  proved  to  be  cold  and  stormy, 

Exposures  of  ■■•  . 

the  second     much  inconvemeuce  was  experienced  from  having 
to  wade  "  a  bow-shot"  through  the  shallow  water 
to  the  shore  ;  and  many  took  "  coughs  and  colds,  which 
afterwards  turned  to  the  scurvy."      On  Monday  of  the 
Nov.  27.    week  next  following,  twenty-four  of  the  colonists, 
pioTa'tiorof    ill  the  shallop,  which  was  now  refitted,  set  out  for 
the  country.    ^^^  cxploratiou  aloug  the  coast,  accompanied  by 
Jones,  the  shipmaster,  and  ten  of  his  people,  in  the  long- 
boat.    That  day  and  the  following  night  they  suffered 
from  a  cold  snow-storm,  and  were  compelled  to  run  in  to 
the  shore  for  security.      The  next  day  brouo^ht 

Nov.  28.  T    .    1        1  T  • 

them  to  the  harbor  to  which  the  precedmg  jour- 
ney by  land  had  been  extended,  now  named  by  them 
Cold  Harbor,  and  ascertained  to  have  a  depth  of  twelve 
feet  of  water  at  flood-tide.  Having  slept  under  a  shelter 
of  pine-trees,  they  proceeded  to  make  an  exam- 
ination of  the  spot  as  to  its  fitness  for  their  set- 
tlement ;  in  doing  which,  under  the  snow-covered  and 
frozen  surface,  they  found  another  parcel  of  corn  and  a 
bag  of  beans.  These  spoils  they  sent  back  in  the  shallop 
with  Jones  and  sixteen  of  the  party,  who  were  ill,  or  worn 
out  with  exposure  and  fatigue.  Marching  inland  five  or 
six  miles,  they  found  a  grave  with  a  deposit  of 
personal  articles,  as  "bowls,  trays,  dishes,"  "a 
knife,  a  pack-needle,"  "  a  little  bow,"  and  some  "  strings 

1  Mourt,  4-8.     Pamet  Harbor,  in  Truro,  seems  to  bave  been  the  limit  of 
this  expedition. 


Nov.  30. 


Chap.  V.l 


PLYMOUTH. 


169 


and  bracelets  of  fine  white  beads."  Two  wigwams  were 
seen,  which  appeared  to  have  been  recently  inhabited.^ 
Returning  to  their  boat  in  the  evening,  the  party  hastened 
to  rejoin  their  friends. 

The  question  was  discussed  whether  they  should  make 
a  further  examination  of  the  coast,  or  sit  down  at  the 
harbor  which  had  been  visited.  The  land  about  it  had 
been  under  cultivation.  The  site  appeared  healthy,  and 
convenient  for  defence,  as  well  as  for  taking  whales,  of 
which  numbers  were  daily  seen.  The  severity  of  the 
winter  season  was  close  at  hand,  and  the  delay,  fatigue, 
and  risk  of  further  explorations  were  dreaded.  But  on 
the  whole,  the  uncertainty  as  to  an  adequate  supply  of 
water,  with  the  insufficiency  of  the  harbor,  which,  though 
commodious  for  boats,  was  too  shallow  for  larger  vessels, 
was  regarded  as  a  conclusive  objection,  and  it  was  resolved 


1  Mourt's  "Relation"  records  (12, 13) 
the  first  observation  by  the  Plymouth 
people  of  the  construction,  equipment, 
and  provisioning  of  an  Indian  wigwam  : 
"  The  houses  were  made  with  long  young 
sapling  trees  bended,  and  both  ends 
stuck  into  the  ground.  They  were 
made  round,  like  unto  an  arbor,  and 
covered  down  to  the  ground  with  thick 
and  well-wrought  mats;  and  the  door 
was  not  over  a  yard  high,  made  of  a 
mat  to  open.  The  chimney  was  a  wide 
open  hole  in  the  top ;  for  which  they 
had  a  mat  to  cover  it  close  when  they 
pleased.  One  might  stand  and  go  up- 
right in  them.  In  the  midst  of  them 
were  four  little  trunches  knocked  into 
the  ground,  and  small  sticks  laid  over, 
on  which  they  hung  their  pots,  and 
what  they  had  to  seethe.  Round  about 
the  fire  they  lay  on  mats,  which  are 
their  beds.  The  houses  were  double- 
matted  ;  for  as  they  were  matted  with- 
out, so  were  they  within,  with  newer 
and  fairer  mats.  In  the  houses  we  found 
wooden  bowls,  trays,  and  dishes,  earthen 

VOL.  I.  15 


pots,  hand-baskets  made  of  crab-shells 
wrought  together ;  also  an  English  pail 
or  bucket ;  it  wanted  a  bail,  but  it  had 
two  iron  ears.  There  were  also  bas- 
kets of  sundry  sorts,  bigger  and  some 
lesser,  finer  and  some  coarser.  Some 
were  curiously  wrought  with  black  and 
white  in  pretty  works,  and  sundry  other 
of  their  household  stuff.  AVe  found  also 
two  or  three  deer's  heads,  one  whereof 
had  been  newly  killed,  for  it  was  still 
fresh.  There  was  also  a  company  of 
deer's  feet  stuck  up  in  the  houses,  harts' 
horns,  and  eagles'  claws,  and  sundry 
such  like  things  there  was ;  also  two  or 
three  baskets  full  of  parched  acorns, 
pieces  of  fish,  and  a  piece  of  a  broiled 
herring.  We  found  also  a  little  silk- 
grass,  and  a  little  tobacco-seed,  with 
some  other  seeds  which  we  knew  not. 
Without  was  sundry  bundles  of  flags, 
and  sedge,  bulrushes,  and  other  stuff  to 
make  mats.  There  was  thrust  into  a 
hollow  tree  two  or  three  pieces  of  ven- 
ison ;  but  we  thought  it  fitter  for  the 
doffs  than  for  us." 


170  HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAKD.  [Book  I. 

to  make  a  further  examination  of  the  bay.  The  mate  of 
the  Mayflower  had  told  them  of  Agawam,  now  Ipswich,  as 
a  good  harbor,  with  fertile  land,  and  facilities  for  fishing. 
But,  as  things  stood,  it  was  thought  too  distant  for  a  visit. 

As  soon  as  the  state  of  the  weather  permitted,  a  party  of 
ten,  including  Carver,  Bradford,  and  others  of  the  princi- 

Dec.  6.  pal  men,  set  off  with  eight  seamen  in  the  shallop 
diti'on  ofdiJ-  on  what  proved  to  be  the  final  expedition  of  discov- 
covery.  ^^y  Tho  sovority  of  tho  cold  was  extrcmo.  "The 
water  froze  on  their  clothes,  and  made  them  many  times 
like  coats  of  iron."  Coasting  along  the  cape  in  a  souther- 
ly direction  for  six  or  seven  leagues,  they  landed  and  slept 
at  a  place  where  ten  or  twelve  Indians  had  appeared  on 
the  shore.  The  Indians  ran  away  on  being  approached, 
and  at  night  it  was  supposed  that  it  was  their  fires  which 
appeared  at  four  or  five  miles'  distance.  The  next  day, 
while  part  of  the  company  in  the  shallop  examined  the 
shore,  the  rest,  ranging  about  the  country  where  are  now 
the  towns  of  AVellflcet  and  Eastham,  found  a  burial-place, 
some  old  wigwams,  and  a  small  store  of  parched  acorns, 
buried  in  the  ground ;  but  they  met  with  no  inhabitants. 
The  following  morning,  at  daylight,  they  had  just  ended 
their  prayers,  and  were  preparing  breakfast  at  their  camp 
on  the  beach,  when  they  heard  a  yell,  and  a  flisfht 

Dec.  8.  J  J         ■>  b 

of  arrows  fell  among  them.  The  assailants  turned 
out  to  be  thirty  or  forty  Indians,  who,  being  fired  upon, 
retired.  Neither  side  had  been  harmed.  A  number  of  the 
arrows  were  picked  up,  "  some  whereof  were  headed  with 
brass,  others  with  hart's  horn,  and  others  with  eagles' 
claws." 

Getting  on  board,  they  sailed  all  day  along  the  shore  in 
a  storm  of  snow  and  sleet,  making,  by  their  estimate,  a 
distance  of  forty  or  fifty  miles,  without  discovering  a  har- 
bor. In  the  afternoon,  the  gale  having  increased,  their 
rudder  was  disabled,  and  they  had  to  steer  with  oars.  At 
length  the  mast  was  carried  away,  and  they  drifted  in  the 


Chap.  V.]  PLYMOUTH.  171 

dark  with  a  flood  tide.  With  difflculty  they  brought  up 
under  the  lee  of  a  "  small  rise  of  land."  Here  a  part  of 
the  company,  suflering  from  Avet  and  cold,  went  on  shore, 
though  not  without  fear  of  hostile  neighbors,  and  lighted 
a  fire  by  which  to  pass  the  inclement  night.^  In  the 
mornino',  "  they  found  themselves   to  be  on  an 

^  .  .  Dec.  9. 

island  secure  from  the  Indians,  where  they  might 
dry  their  stufl",  fix  their  pieces,  and  rest  themselves ;  and, 
this  being  the  last  day  of  the  week,  they  prepared    ^ec.  lo. 
there  to  keep  the  Sabbath." 

"  On  Monday,  they  sounded  the  harbor,  and  found  it 
fit  for  shipping,  and  marched  also  into  the  land, 
and  found   divers  corn-fields  and  little  running  Landing  at 
brooks,  a  place,  as  they  supposed,  fit  for  situa- 
tion ; so  they  returned  to  their  ship  again  with 

this  news  to  the  rest  of  their  people,  which  did  much 
comfort  their  hearts."^  Such  is  the  record  of  that  event 
which  has  made  the  twenty-second  of  December  a  mem- 
orable day  in  the  calendar.^ 

1  The  land  was  Clark's  Island,  In  about  to  be  built,  in  1741,  Elder  Thomas 
Plymouth  harbor,  said  by  Morton  to  Faunce,  then  ninety-one  years  old,  came 
have  been  afterwards  so  named  from  to  visit  the  rock,  and  to  remonstrate 
the  mate  of  the  Mayflower.  against  its  being  exposed  to  injury  ;  and 

2  Bradibrd,  87,  88.  he  repeated  what  he  had  heard  of  it 

3  When  the  practice  of  celebrating  from  the  first  planters.  Elder  Faunce's 
the  anniversary  at  Plymouth  began,  In  testimony  was  transmitted  through 
1769,  eleven  days  were  erroneously  Mrs.  White,  who  died  in  1810,  ninety- 
added  to  the  recorded  date,  to  accom-  five  years  old,  and  Deacon  Ephraim 
modate  it  to  the  Gregorian  style,  then  Spooner,  who  died  in  1818,  at  the  age 
newly  adopted  in  England.  An  at-  of  eighty-three.  In  1775,  the  rock  was 
tempt  has  been  made  within  a  few  broken  Into  two  pieces,  In  an  attempt 
years  to  substitute  the  true  allowance  of  to  remove  It  to  the  town  square.  The 
ten  days.  But  the  twenty-second  day  large  fragment  which  was  separated  was 
of  December  has  taken  a  firm  hold  on  In  1834  placed  before  Pilgrim  Hall,  and 
the  local  thought  and  literature,  which  enclosed  within  an  Iron  railing. 

the  twentij-first  will  scarcely  displace.  The  tradition  does  not  appear  to  have 

A  trustworthy  tradition  has  preserved  unequivocally  determined  who  It  was 

the  knowledge  of  the  landing-place,  nat-  that  landed  on  the  rock,  whether  the 

urally  an  object  of  Interest  both  to  the  exploring  party  of  ten  men  who  went 

Inhabitants   and   to   strangers.    It   was  on  shore   at  Plymouth,   December  11 

Plymouth  rock.      Part  of  it  is  now  (old  style),  or  the  whole  company,  who 

imbedded  in  a  wharf.     When  this  was  came  Into  Plymouth  harbor  in  the  May- 


172 


HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 


[Book  I. 


Dec.  Ifi 
Arrival  of 
the  wliulo 


No  time  was  now  lost.  By  the  end  of  the  week,  the 
ISIayflower  had  brought  her  company  to  keep 
their  Sabbath  by  their  future  home.^  Further 
romi)any.it  examiuatiou  confirmed  the  agreeable  impressions 
which  had  been  received.  There  was  found  a  con- 
venient harbor,  "  compassed  with  a  goodly  land."  The 
country  was  well  wooded.  It  had  clay,  sand,  and  shells, 
for  bricks,  mortar,  and  pottery,  and  stone  for  wells  and 
chimneys ;  the  sea  and  beach  promised  abundance  of  fish 


flower  on  Saturday,  December  IG,  and 
■who,  or  a  part  of  whom,  "  went  a  land  " 
two  days  after.  The  received  opinion, 
that  the  same  landing-place,  as  being 
the  most  convenient  within  sight,  was 
used  on  both  occasions,  appears  alto- 
gether probable.  The  question  is  not 
without  interest,  because,  if  the  landing 
on  the  rock  should  be  associated  only 
with  the  event  of  December  11  (21), 
it  would  be  disconnected  from  the  de- 
barkation of  the  larger  portion  of  the 
comjiany,  including  all  the  women  and 
children;  and  in  representations  of  it, 
the  Mayflower  at  anchor  in  the  harbor 
would  have  to  be  omitted,  since  at  the 
time  of  the  first  landing  she  was  still  at 
the  end  of  the  Cape. 

During  Bradford's  absence,  his  wife, 
left  in  the  ship,  fell  overboard,  and  was 
drowned. 

1  The  precise  time  of  the  adoption 
of  the  name  which  the  settlement  has 
borne  since  its  first  year  is  not  known. 
Ph/moiith  is  the  name  recorded  on 
Smith's  map  as  having  been  given  to 
the  spot  by  Prince  Charles.  It  seems 
very  likely  that  the  emigrants  had  with 
them  this  map,  which  had  been  much 
circulated,  though  they  came  away  in- 
tending to  settle  at  some  distance  from 
the  place ;  or  it  may  have  been  brought 
out  to  them  by  the  Fortune,  which  sailed 
from  England  after  intelligence  of  their 
wherealjouts  had  been  brought  by  the 
Mayflower  on  her  return.  Smith  un- 
derstood that  they  had  it,  for  he  says 


(True  Travels,  &c.,  46)  they  endured 
"  a  wonderful  deal  of  misery  with  an 
infinite  patience,  saying  my  books  and 
maps  were  much  better  cheap  to  teach 
them  than  myself."  Hubbard  says 
(General  History  of  New  England,  in 
Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  XV.  51)  that  "after 
they  had  discovered  land,  they  were 
altogether  ignorant  where  it  was."  But 
this  must  be  an  eiTor,  for  Coppin  at 
least,  the  mate,  "  had  been  in  the  coun- 
try before"  (Bradford,  8G),  and  told 
them  of  a  harbor  near,  "  which  he  had 
been  in."  And  they  were  acquainted 
with  the  bearing  and  distance  of  Aga- 
wam,  now  Ipswich.  (Mourt,  14.)  The 
name  Neiv  Plijmonlh  appears  in  a  letter 
written  in  December,  1C21,  by  William 
Hilton,  who  had  come  out  in  the  For- 
tune. Its  use  on  the  spot  might  be 
referred  to  a  still  earlier  time,  if  its  oc- 
currence in  Mourt's  Relation  (as  in  pp. 
49,  53,  57,  and  64)  could  be  ascribed 
with  certainty  to  the  writers.  But  it 
must  be  owned  that  the  name  may 
have  been  introduced  by  the  London 
editor.  Morton  (ISIemorial,  66)  assigns 
as  a  reason  for  adopting  it,  that  "  Ply- 
mouth in  Old  England  was  the  last  town 
they  left  in  their  native  country,  and 
they  received  many  kindnesses  from 
some  Christians  there."  In  Mourt, 
"  Plymouth  "  and  "  the  now  well- 
defended  town  of  New  Plymouth  "  are 
used  as  equivalent.  Later,  the  name 
Plijmouth  came  to  be  ajipropriated  to  the 
town,  and  New  Pbjmouth  to  the  Colony. 


Chap.  V.]  PLYMOUTH.  173 

and  fowl,  and  "  four  or  five  small  running  brooks  "  brought 
a  supply  of  "  very  sweet  fresh  water."     After  prayer  for 
further  divine  guidance,  they  fixed  upon  a  spot 
for  the  erection  of  their  dwellings,  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  a  brook  "  and  many  delicate  springs,"  and  of 
a  hill  suitable  for  a  look-out  and   a  defence.     A  storm 
interrupted  their  proceeding.     When  it  was  past, 
"  so  many  of  them  as  could  went  on  shore,  felled 
and  carried  timber,  to  provide  themselves  stuff  for  build- 
ing."     Then   came   Sunday,  when    "  the  people 
on  shore  heard  a  cry  of  some   savages,  as  they 
thought,  which  caused  an  alarm  and  to  stand  on  their 
guard,  expecting  an  assault;  but  all  was  quiet."     They 
were  still  without  the  shelter  of  a  roof     At  the  sharp 
winter  solstice  of  New  England,  there  was  but 

"  A  screen  of  leafless  branches 
Between  them  and  the  blast." 

But  it  was  the  Lord's  hallowed  time,  and  the  work  of 
building  must  wait.     Next  followed  the  day  sol- 

1.1  .  -,  «      ,  .  Christmas. 

emnized,  m  the  ancient  fanes   of  the  continent 
they  had  left,  with  the  most  pompous  ritual  of  what  they 
esteemed  a  vain  will-worship.     And  the  reader  pauses  to 
ponder  and  analyze  the  feeling  of  stern  exultation  with 
which  its  record  was  made :    "  Monday,   the   25  th  day, 
we  went  on  shore,  some  to  fell  timber,  some  to  saw,  some 
to  rive,  and  some  to  carry;  so  no  man  rested  all  that  day^^ 
The  first  operations  were  the  beginning  of  a  platform 
for  the  ordnance,  and  of  a  building,  twenty  feet  First  opera- 
square,  for  a  storehouse  and  for  common  occupa-  *'°"''- 
tion.     Nineteen  plots  for  dwellings  were  laid  out,  on  the 
opposite  sides  of  a  way  running  along  the  north  side  of 
the  brook.     The  number  of  plots  corresponded  to  that  of 
the  families  into  M^hich  the  company  was  now  divided ; 
the  appropriation  was  made  by  lot ;  and  the  size  of  each 
plot  was  such  as  to  allow  half  a  rod  in  breadth,  and  three 

1  Mourt,  24. 
15* 


174  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

rods  in  depth,  for  each  person  included  in  the  family.  It 
was  "  agreed  that  every  man  should  build  his  own  house." 
"The  frost  and  foul  weather  hindered  them  much."  "Sel- 
dom could  they  work  half  the  M'eek."  Time  was  lost  in 
going  to  and  from  the  vessel,  to  which  in  the  severe  cold 
they  were  obliged  often  to  repair  for  lodging.  They  were 
delayed  in  unloading  by  want  of  boats ;  and  stone,  mortar, 
and  thatch  were  slowly  provided. 

These  were  discouraging  circumstances,  but  far  worse 
troubles  were  to  come.  The  labor  of  providing  habita- 
Fataisick-  tious  had  scarcely  begun,  when  sickness  set  in,  the 
Bess.  consequence  of  exposure  and  bad  food.      AYith- 

in  four  months  it  carried  off  nearly  half  their  number. 
Six  died  in  December,  eight  in  January,  seventeen  in 
February,  and  thirteen  in  March.  At  one  time  during 
the  winter,  only  six  or  seven  had  strength  enough  left  to 
nurse  the  dying  and  bury  the  dead.  Destitute  of  every 
provision  which  the  weakness  and  the  daintiness  of  the 
invalid  require,  the  sick  lay  crowded  in  the  unwholesome 
vessel,  or  in  half-built  cabins  heaped  around  with  snow- 
drifts. The  rude  sailors  refused  them  even  a  share  of 
those  coarse  sea-stores  which  would  have  given  a  little 
variety  to  their  diet,  till  disease  spread  among  the  crew, 
and  the  kind  ministrations  of  those  whom  they  had  neg- 
lected and  affronted  brought  them  to  a  better  temper. 
The  dead  were  interred  in  a  bluff  by  the  water-side,  the 
marks  of  burial  being  carefully  effaced,  lest  the  natives 
should  discover  how  the  colony  had  been  weakened.  The 
imagination  vainly  tasks  itself  to  comprehend  the  horrors 
of  that  fearful  winter.  The  only  mitigations  were,  that  the 
cold  was  of  less  severity  than  is  usual  in  the  place,^  and 
that  there  was  not  an  entire  want  of  food  or  shelter." 

^  "  Some   think   it  to  be  colder   in  landing  had  not  been  uncommonly  mild 

■winter  [than  England] ;   but  I  cannot  for  the  plate. 

out  of  experience  so  say."     (Winslow         2  "  That   which   was   most   sad   and 

in  Mourt,  C2.)  Winslow  could  not  have  lamentable  was,   that  in  two  or  three 

written  thus,  if  the  first  winter  after  the  months'  time  half  of  their  company  died, 


Chap.  V.] 


PLYMOUTH. 


175 


Meantime,  courage  and  fidelity  never  gave  out.  The 
well  carried  out  the  dead  through  the  cold  and  snow,  and 
then  hastened  back  from  the  burial  to  wait  on  the  sick ; 
and  as  the  sick  began  to  recover,  they  took  the  places  of 
those  whose  strength  had  been  exhausted.  There  was  no 
time  and  there  was  no  inclination  to  despond.  The  lesson 
rehearsed  at  Leyden  was  not  forgotten,  "  that  all  great 
and  honorable  actions  are  accompanied  with  great  diffi- 
culties, and  must  be  both  enterprised  and  overcome  with 
answerable  courages."  The  dead  had  died  in  a  good  ser- 
vice, and  the  fit  way  for  survivors  to  honor  and  lament 
them  was  to  be  true  to  one  another,  and  to  work  together 
bravely  for  the  cause  to  which  dead  and  living  had  alike 
been  consecrated.  The  devastation  increased  the  necessity 
of  preparations  for  defence ;  and  it  was  at  the  time  when 


especially  In  January  and  February, 
being  the  deptb  of  winter,  and  wanting 
houses  and  other  comforts ;  being  in- 
fected with  the  scurvy  and  other  dis- 
eases, which  this  long  voyage  and  their 
inaccommodate  condition  had  brought 
upon  them ;  so  as  there  died  sometimes 
two  or  three  of  a  day,  in  the  aforesaid 
time ;  that,  of  one  hundred  and  odd  per- 
sons, scarce  fifty  remained.  And  of 
these  in  the  time  of  most  distress,  there 
was  but  six  or  seven  sound  persons, 
who,  to  their  great  commendations  be  it 
spoken,  spared  no  pains,  night  nor  day, 
but,  with  abundance  of  toil  and  hazard 
of  their  own  health,  fetched  them  wood, 
made  them  fires,  dressed  them  meat, 
made  their  beds,  washed  their  loath- 
some clothes,  clothed  and  unclothed 
them;  in  a  word,  did  all  the  homely 
and  necessary  offices  for  them  which 
dainty  and  queasy  stomachs  cannot  en- 
dure to  hear  named ;  and  all  this  willing- 
ly and  cheerfully,  without  any  grudging 
in  the  least,  showing  herein  their  true 
love  unto  their  friends  and  brethren. 
A  rare  example  and  worthy  to  be  re- 
membered.    Two  of  these  seven  were 


Mr.  William  Brewster,  their  reverend 
Elder,  and  Miles  Standlsh,  their  captain 
and  military  commander,  unto  whom 
myself  and  many  others  were  much 
beholden  in  our  low  and  sick  condition. 
And  yet  the  Lord  so  upheld  these  per- 
sons, as  in  this  general  calamity  they 
were  not  at  all  infected  either  with  sick- 
ness or  lameness.  And  what  I  have 
said  of  these,  I  may  say  of  many  others 
who  died  m  this  general  visitation,  and 
others  yet  living,  that,  whilst  they  had 
health,  yea,  or  any  strength  continuing, 
they  were  not  wanting  to  any  that  had 
need  of  them.  And  I  doubt  not  but 
their  recompense  is  with  the  Lord." 
(Bradford,  91,  92.)  When  Robinson 
heard  of  this  great  calamity,  he  wrote 
from  Leyden  (June  30,  1G21):  "In  a 
battle  it  is  not  looked  for  but  that  divers 
should  die.  It  is  thought  well  for  a  side, 
if  it  get  the  victory,  though  with  the 
loss  of  divers,  If  not  too  many,  or  too 
great.  God,  I  hope,  hath  given  you  the 
victory  after  many  difficulties,  for  your- 
selves and  others."  (Bradford's  Letter- 
Book,  in  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  III.  45.) 


176  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

the  company  was  diminishing  at  the  rate  of  one  on  every 

i62i._     second    day,    that   a   military    organization    was 

formed,   with  Standish  for  the  captain,  and  the 

humble  fortification  on  the  hill  overlookin":  the 

Feb.  i21.  .  . 

dwellings  was  mounted  with  five  guns. 
"  Warm  and  fair  weather "  came  at  length,  and  "  the 
birds  sang  in  the  woods  most  pleasantly."      Never  was 
sprinor  more  welcome  than  when  it   oi^ened  on 

March  3.        ,.       ^.  , 

tins  ainicted  company. 
As  yet  there  had   been  no   communication   with   the 
natives,  though  their  fires  had  been  observed  at  a  distance, 
1G20.      some  tools  had  been  lost  by  their  thievery,  and 

Dec.  30.  .  . 

1C21.      two  of  them  had  been  seen  on  a  neighboring  hill, 
^^"'  ^'     and  been  invited  by  signals  to  a  conference.     At 

Feb.  16,  17.    ,  -  f,  •  „  T      T 

length,  on  "  a  nne,  warm  morning,     an  Indian 

came  into  the  hamlet,  and,  passing  along  the  row  of  huts, 

was  intercepted  before  the  common  house,  which  he  would 

have  entered.      In  broken  English  he  bade  the  strangers 

.    "Welcome,"  and  said  that  his  name  was  Samo- 

March  16.  ' 

Welcome  sct,  aud  that  he  came  from  Monhegan,  a  place 
distant  a  day's  sail,  and  five  days'  journey  by  land, 
towards  the  east,  where  he  had  learned  something  of  the 
language  from  the  crews  of  fishing-vessels.  They  gave 
him  food  and  kept  him  all  day.  He  told  them,  that  the 
place  where  they  were  was  by  the  Indians  called  Patuxet, 
and  that  it  had  been  depopulated  four  years  before  by  an 
epidemic  sickness ;  ^  that  the  subjects  of  a  sachem  named 

1  See  abovo,  p.   99,   note.  —  "  We  and  none  living  near  by  eiglit  or  ten 

have  })een  given  certainly  to  know  that,  miles."    (Cushnian,  in  Young,  Pilgrims, 

within  these  late  years,  there  hath  by  258,259.)  —  "About  twelve  years  since, 

God's   visitation   reigned   a   wonderful  they  were  swept  away  by  a  great  and 

plague,"  &c.    (King  James's  Charter  to  grievous  plague,  that  was  amongst  them, 

the  Council  for  New  England.) — "They  so  that  there  are  very  few  left  to  inhabit 

were  very  much  wasted  of  late  by  rea-  the  country."     (Higginson,  New  Eng- 

son  of  a  great  mortality  that  fell  amongst  land's  Plantation,  in  Mass.  Hist.  Coll., 

them  three  years  since."     "  We  found  1.123.)  —  "  The  hand  of  God  fell  heavi- 

the   place   where  we   live  empty,   the  ly  u])on  them,  with  such  a  mortal  stroke 

people  being  all  dead  and  gone  away,  that  they  died  on  heaps,"  &c.    (Morton, 


Visit  from 
otlier  na- 
tives. 


Chap.  V.]  PLYMOUTH.  177 

Massasoit  were  their  next  neighbors ;  and  that  at  the 
southeast,  on  the  Cape,  was  a  tribe  called  the  Nausets^ 
who  were  exasperated  against  the  English  on  account  of 
a  kidnapping  of  some  of  their  people.^  Reluctantly  they 
entertained  him  for  the  night,  not  without  suspicion  of  his 
designs,  and  sent  him  away  the  next  morning  with  the 
present  of  a  knife,  a  bracelet,  and  a  ring.  At  parting, 
he  promised  to  repeat  his  visit,  and  bring  some  of  his 
friends  for  a  trade  in  beavers'  skins. 

He  appeared  the  following  day  with  five  other  savages, 
who  returned  the  stolen  tools  and  brought  three  or  four 
skins.  As  it  was  Sunday,  the  English  would  not  March  is. 
trade,  but  gave  them  hospitable  entertainment 
and  some  presents,  and  dismissed  them  with  an 
invitation  to  come  again  with  a  better  supply.  Samo- 
set  could  not  be  prevailed  upon  to  depart  with  them,  but, 
feigning  himself  sick,  remained  at  the  settlement  till  the 
third  day  after,  when  he  was  despatched  to  look  for  his 
friends. 

The  next  day,  he  came  again,  accompanied  by  four 

New  English  Canaan,  Book  I.   Chap,  who  understands  that  there  is  a  divine 

III.)  — "  About  the  year  1618, government  of  human  aflairs,  and  who 

as  the  ancient  Indians  report,  there  be-  recalls  what  has  followed  upon  the  oc- 
fell  a  great  mortaUty  among  them,"  &c.  cupation  of  this  region  by  civilized  men, 
(Edward  Johnson,  Wonder- Working  may  well  hesitate  to  pronounce  that 
Providence,  Book  I.  Chap.  VIII.)  —  they  erred  in  that  belief. 
"  A  three  years'  plague,  about  twelve  i  "  These  people  are  ill  affected  to- 
or  sixteen  j-ears  past,  swept  away  most  ward  the  English  by  reason  of  one  Hunt, 
of  the  inhabitants  all  along  the  sea-  a  master  of  a  ship,  who  deceived  the 
coast,  and  in  some  places  utterly  con-  people,  and  got  them,  under  color  of 
sumed  man,  woman,  and  child,  so  that  trucking  with  them,  twenty  out  of  this 
there  is  no  person  left  to  lay  claim  to  very  place  where  we  inhabit,  and  seven 
the  soil  which  they  possessed.  In  most  men  from  the  Nausets,  and  carried  them 
of  the  rest,  the  contagion  hath  scarce  away,  and  sold  them  for  slaves."  (Mourt, 
left  alive  one  person  of  a  hundred."  33  ;  see  above,  p.  93.)  Under  this  provo- 
(Planters*  Plea,  Chap.  IV.)  — Hutchin-  cation,  according  to  Samoset's  account, 
son  says  (History,  I.  38)  :  "  Our  ances-  the  Nausets  had  killed  three  English- 
tors  supposed  an  immediate  interposition  men  eight  months  before.  "  They  were 
of  Providence  in  the  great  mortality  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges's  men,  as  this 
among  the  Indians,  to  make  room  for  savage  told  us"  (Mourt,  33)  ;  that  is,  of 
the   settlement  of  the  English."      He  Dermer's  crew  (see  above,  p.  99). 


178  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

others,  one  of  ■whom,  named  Sqiianto,  turned  out  to 
he  one  of  the  Indians  stolen  seven  years  hefore 
hy  Hunt.^  They  hrought  a  message  from  Massa- 
soit,  that  he  was  at  hand,  and  desired  an  interview  with 
Visit  from,  the  strangers.  It  took  place  with  suitable  for- 
wil^Massa-  uiaUties  and  precautions.  Massasoit  appearing 
*°''-  on  the  top  of  a  hill  close  by,  with  sixty  of  his 

followers,  Winslow  was  sent  out  with  Squanto,  and  with 
a  present  to  the  king  and  his  brother,  consisting  of  three 
knives,  a  copper  chain  with  a  jewel  attached,  an  ear-ring, 
"  a  pot  of  strong  water,  a  good  quantity  of  biscuit,  and 
some  butter."  After  a  brief  parley,  Winslow  was  left 
behind  as  a  hostage,  while  the  king  and  twenty  unarmed 
followers  met  Standish,  Williamson,^  and  six  musketeers 
at  the  brook  which  divided  the  parties.  Massasoit,  con- 
ducted with  his  men  to  an  unfinished  building,  where  a  rug 
and  cushions  were  spread  for  them,  gave  audience  to  the 
Governor,  who  came  "  with  drum  and  trumpet  after  him, 
and  some  few  musketeers."  After  salutations  and  feasting, 
they  proceeded  to  make  a  treaty  with  the  following  stipu- 
lations :  —  that  Massasoit  and  his  people  should  offer  no 
injury  to  the  English,  and  that  any  offender  in  this  re- 
spect should  be  surrendered  for  punishment ;  that,  if 
tools  were  stolen,  they  should  be  restored,  and  that  similar 
redress  should  be  afltbrded  on  the  other  part;  that  mu- 

1  So  say  Bradford  (95)  and  INfourt's  calls  the  Indian  mentioned  in  the  text 

Journal  (35).    Dermer,  finding  in  Now-  Tisfiuantum.     Bradford  almost  always 

foundland,  in  1G18,  a  Tasrjuantum  who,  plvos  him  the  name  of  Si/vanto. 

si.x  years  before,  had  been  kidnapjjed  2  "  ]\Iaster  "Williamson."  (]\Iourt,  3G.) 

by  Hunt,  l)roujiht  hin\  to  England,  and  There   is  no  Willkanson  in   Bradford's 

back  again  to  America,  (Brief  Relation  list.       There    is    a    Thomas    Willknns 

of  the  President  and  Council  of  New  (Bradford,  449)  ;  but  liis  place  in  the 

England,  13,  16,)  leaving  him  at  Saco,  catalogue  is  such  as  to  make  it  seem 

whence  he   seems   to   have   found   his  unlikely  that  he  would  be  called  Master, 

way  to  Plymouth.     Gorges  (Bricfc  Nar-  and  he  probably  died  before  the  visit  of 

ration,  Chap.  II.)  says  that  the  name  of  Massasoit.  (Ibid.,  454.)    The  name  may 

one  of  the  tli7-ee  natives  brought  to  him  ha\(!  been  a  misprint  for  Allerlon,  who 

by  Waymouth  (see  above,  pp.  7G,  80)  was  StandLsh's  comj)anion  on  the  same 

was  Tasquuntum.     Winslow  uniformly  errand  the  following  day.    (IMourt,  38.) 


Chap.  V.]  PLYMOUTH.  179 

tual  aid  should  be  rendered  against  enemies ;  that  notice 
should  be  sent  to  other  neighboring  natives,  to  the  end 
that  they  might  enter  into  similar  engagements ;  and  that, 
when  visits  should  be  exchanged,  the  visitors  should  go 
unarmed.  This  business  settled,  Massasoit  was  assured 
that  "  King  James  would  esteem  of  him  as  his  friend  and 
ally." 

The  treaty  —  which  remained  in  force  fifty-four  years  — 
being  concluded,  Massasoit  was  conducted  by  the  Governor 
to  the  brook,  and  rejoined  his  party,  leaving  hostages  be- 
hind. Presently  his  brother,  Quadequina,  came  over  with 
a  retinue,  and  was  entertained  with  like  hospitality ;  after 
which,  the  hostages  were  mutually  released.  The  next 
day,  on  an  invitation  from  the  kino-   Standish  and 

A  11  -.    1   •         •    •  T  1     -I        •   1      March  2a 

AUerton  returned  his  visit,  and  were  regaled  with 
"  three  or  four  ground-nuts  and  some  tobacco."  The 
Governor  sent  for  the  king's  kettle,  and  returned  it  "  full 
of  pease,  which  pleased  them  well,  and  so  they  went  their 
way."  Squanto  and  Samoset  remained,  and  the  former 
gave  an  earnest  of  his  subsequent  usefulness  to  the  English 
by  taking  for  them  a  quantity  of  eels.  Their  tables  would 
have  been  better  supplied,  had  they  been  able  to  avail 
themselves  of  the  plenty  of  the  fishing-grounds ;  but,  by 
some  oversight,  they  had  come  unprovided  with  the  proper 
tackle.^ 

As  their  New  Year's  Day  approached,^  they  "  proceeded 
with  their  common  business,  from  which  they  had  been  so 
often  hindered  by  the  savages'  coming,  and  con-  March  21- 
cluded  both  of  military  orders  and  of  some  laws  ^  ~^-.  ,. 

•'  Organization 

and   orders    thoug-ht    behooveful    for    their    pres-  miutaryand 

civil. 

ent  estate  and  condition."^     At  the  same  time 

they  re-elected  Carver  to  be  their  Governor.     They  had 

now  completed  such  preparation  as  was  to  be  made  for 

1  Mourt,  26.    Winslow,  Good  Newes     25th   of  March,  called  in  the  church 
from  New  England,  294.  calendar    the   Annunciation,   or    Lady 

2  Till  1752  the  years  were  reckoned     Day. 

by  the  English   as   beginning  on  the        3  Mourt,  39. 


180  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGL^VND.  [Book  I. 

severing  the  last  tie  that  bound  them  to  the  scenes  of  their 

earlier   life,  and   the   Mayflower  set  sail  on  her  return 

voyajrc,  Avith  scarcely  more  than  half  the  crew 

Aprils.  ^     &    '  J 

Sailing  of  the  wliicli  liad  navigatcd  her  to  America,  the  rest  hav- 
mg  lallen  victims  to  the  epidemic  oi  the  winter. 
The  delay  in  landing  her  passengers  and  stores  had  been 
protracted  by  a  fire,  which  had  destroyed  the  roof  of  the 
storehouse ;  and  this,  with  the  unwillingness  of  the  colo- 
nists to  part  with  her  while  their  situation  remained  so 
precarious,  and  the  necessity  of  recruiting  the  health  of 
her  crew,  had  occasioned  her  detention  through  the  winter, 
at  a  cost  which  was  afterwards  complained  of  by  the  Ad- 
venturers.^ She  carried  back  not  one  of  the  emigrants, 
dispiriting  as  were  the  hardships  which  they  had  endured, 
and  those  they  had  still  in  prospect. 

Scarcely  had  she  departed,  when  another  calamity  oc- 
curred, as  grievous  as  any  that  could  have  befallen  the 
Death  of  struggling  colony.  Carver,  who  at  one  time  had 
Carver.  bccu  Icft  with  uo  aid  but  that  of  Brewster,  Stan- 
dish,  and  four  others,  to  nurse  their  suflering  companions, 
"  oppressed  by  his  great  care  and  pains  for  the  common 
good,"  came  out  of  the  field ^  where  he  was  planting,  took 
to  his  bed,  after  a  few  hours  fell  into  a  delirium,  and  died 
in  a  few  days.  In  "  great  lamentation  and  heaviness " 
they  laid  him  in  his  grave,  "  with  as  much  solemnity  as 
they  were  in  a  capacity  to  perform,  with  a  discharge  of 
some  volleys  of  shot  of  all  that  bare  arms."  His  wife, 
"  being  overcome  with  excessive  grief  for  the  loss  of  so 
gracious  a  husband,"  followed  him  after  a  few  weeks. 
Bradford  was  chosen  to  the  vacant  office,  with  Isaac  Aller- 

1  Bradford,  100.  sudden  fever.     But  Bradford,  not  stat- 

2  Belknap  (Amer.  Biog.,  II.  215)  ing  what  would  have  presented  an  in- 
says,  "on  the  5th  of  April,  the  day  on  teresting  coincidence,  says nierely^(lOO) 
which  the  ship  sailed  for  England."  If  "  In  this  month  of  April."  Perhaps 
it  were  so,  one  might  conjecture  as  to  Belknap,  who  was  not  acquainted  with 
how  much,  in  Carver's  debilitated  state  Bradford's  History,  made  a  hasty  infer- 
and  with  such  anxieties  upon  him,  the  ence  from  the  place  of  the  entry  in 
sailing  of  the  ship  had  to  do  with  his  Prince's  Chronology. 


Chap.  V.]  PLYMOUTH.  181 

ton,  at  his  request,  for  his  Assistant.-^  Forty-six  of  the 
colonists  of  the  Mayflower  were  now  dead,  —  twenty-eight 
out  of  the  forty-eight  adult  men.^  Before  the  arrival  of 
the  second  party  of  emigrants  in  the  autumn,  the  dead 
reached  the  number  of  fifty-one,  and  only  an  equal  num- 
ber survived  the  first  miseries  of  the  enterprise. 

The  transmitted  history  of  Carver  covers  less  than  four 
years.  A  diligent  curiosity  has  failed  to  discover  his  birth- 
place or  his  early  condition.  In  an  unambitious  service 
of  religious  duty,  which  in  its  partially  developed  results 
has  already  changed  the  face  of  human  affairs,  tradition 
relates  that  he  sacrificed  an  amj)le  estate.  He  wore  him- 
self out  with  public  labors,  and  ministrations  of  private 
compassion.  He  was  honored  to  be  the  earliest  chief  of 
the  company  which  unconsciously  was  laying  the  foun- 
dation-stone of  the  American  republic,^  if  indeed  he  did 
not  subscribe  the  first  name  affixed,  in  the  annals  of 
mankind,  to  a  fundamental  constitution  of  government.* 

In  early  spring,  the  settlers  opened  the  ground  near 
their   dwellinofs   with   the    spade,    and   prepared 

^  .  .   ,      March  19, 20. 

their  rude  gardens.     They  sowed  six  acres  with 

barley  and  pease.      Their  good  fortune  m  the  ^^^^^^_^^^^ 

winter  at  the  subterranean  storehouses  had  given  ^nd  condition 

,      of  the  settlers 

them  ten  bushels  of  Indian  corn  for  seed.     This  during  the 
sufficed  them  for  the  cultivation  of  twenty  acres,  ^""""'^ ' 
Squanto  instructing  them  how  to  plant  and  hill  it,  and 

1  This  arrangement  had  reference  to  of  other  colonies  near  it,  is  uncertain. 

Bradford's  "  being  not  yet  recovered  of  Whether  Britain  would   have 

his  illness,  in  which  he  had  been  near  had  any  colonies  in  America,  if  religion 

the  point  of  death."     (Bradford,  100.)  had  not  been  the  grand  inducement,  is 

2  The  seven  men  named  above  (p.  doubtful."  (Hutchinson,  History,  I.  11.) 
164,  note)  were  all  dead.  (Bradford,  ^  See  above,  p.  165.  "  This  is  per- 
451,  452.)  Martin's  hut  was  emptied ;  haps  the  only  instance  in  human  history 
"  he  and  all  his  died  in  the  first  infec-  of  that  positive  original  social  compact, 
tion."  which    speculative    philosophers    have 

3  «  Viroania  in  its  infancy  was  strug-  imagined  as  the  only  legitimate  source 
gling  for  life ;  and  what  its  fate  would  of  government."  (John  Quincy  Adams, 
have  been,  if  the  fathers  of  it  in  Eng-  Oration  on  the  2 2d  of  December,  1802, 
land  had  not  seen  the  rise  and  growth  p.  17.) 

VOL.  I.  16 


182  mSTOKY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

manure  it  with  fish.  As  the  season  advanced,  they  found 
native  grapes  and  berries  in  abundance ;  and  they  did 
not  omit  to  record  that  wild-flowers  of  various  hue  and 
"  very  sweet "  fragrance  added  a  charm  to  the  scene. 

A  visitor  to  Plymouth  during  this  summer,  as  he  land- 
ed on  the  southern  side  of  a  high  bluff,  would  have  seen, 
standing  between  it  and  a  rapid  little  stream,  a  rude  house 
of  logs  or  planks,  twenty  feet  square,  containing  the  com- 
mon property  of  the  plantation.  Proceeding  up  a  gentle 
acclivity  between  two  rows  of  log  cabins,  nineteen  in 
number,  some  of  them  perhaps  vacant  since  the  death  of 
their  first  tenants,  he  would  have  come  to  a  hill  sur- 
mounted with  a  platform  for  cannon.  He  might  have 
counted  twenty  men  at  work  with  hoes  in  the  enclosures 
about  the  huts,  or  fishing  in  the  shallow  harbor,  or  visiting 
the  woods  or  the  beach  for  game  ;  while  six  or  eight  women 
were  busy  in  household  affairs,  and  some  twenty  children, 
from  infancy  upwards,  completed  the  domestic  picture.-^ 

With  the  variety  afforded  by  wild-fowl,  fish,  and  native 
fruits,  what  remained  of  the  stores  that  had  been  brought 
over  yielded  a  sufficient  supply  of  food,  and  the  summer 
season  brought  no  other  want.  Vigilance  was  necessary 
against  hostile  neighbors,  and  a  system  was  to  be  pursued 
for  securing  order  and  industry ;  but  the  overseer  of 
twenty  laborers  had  no  hard  task,  when  one  half  of  them, 
at  least,  shared  fully  in  his  own  public  spirit,  and  as  many 
as  might  be  of  a  different  disposition  depended  for  their 
daily  comforts  on  the  good-will  and  sense  of  justice  of 
those  who  maintained  him  in  his  place.  Four  expeditions 
during  the  summer  varied  the  life  of  the  exiles,  and  ex- 
tended their  knowledge  of  the  country  to  a  few  miles' 
distance  on  the  north,  east,  and  west. 

Winslow  and   Hopkins,   accompanied   by   Squanto   as 

1  Of  tlie  cliildrcn,  two  were  born  on  White,  while  she  was  anchored  in  Cape 
board  the  INIayflower-,  — one,  Occaniis  Cod  Harbor.  White  lived  three  years 
Hopkins,  at  sea ;  the  other,  Teregrliie     into  the  next  century. 


Chap.  V.]  PLYMOUTH.  183 

interpreter,  were  despatched  to  visit  Massasoit,  at  his  home 
on  Narragansett  Bay,  in  order  to  ascertain  where  his  peo- 
ple mifj^ht  be  found  in  case  of  need,  to  obtain  in- 

■'■  Y  June  or  July. 

formation  of  his  force  and  of  the  condition  of  the  visit  to  Mas- 
country,  to  cement  the  inendship  an*eady  con- 
tracted, and  to  make  arrangements  for  future  intercourse. 
They  bore  "  a  horseman's  coat  of  red  cotton  and  laced  with 
a  slight  lace  "  for  a  present,  and  a  copper  chain  to  be  the 
credential  of  any  messenger  whom  Massasoit  might  send  to 
the  settlement,  where,  he  was  to  be  informed,  it  would  not 
be  convenient,  by  reason  of  scarcity  of  the  means  of  hos- 
pitality, to  receive  his  people  so  freely  as  heretofore.  By 
a  walk  of  fifteen  miles,  they  came  in  the  afternoon  to  a 
village  called  Namasket,  in  what  is  now  Middleborough, 
where  the  natives  entertained  them  with  "  a  kind  of 
bread,"  and  with  spawn  of  shads  boiled  with  old  acorns. 
At  night,  they  lodged  in  the  open  air,  at  a  place  eight 
miles  further  on,  where  were  a  number  of  Indians,  who 
had  assembled  to  fish,  but  had  erected  no  shelter.  Here 
they  saw  marks  of  former  extensive  cultivation.  "  Thou- 
sands of  men  had  lived  there,  which  died  in  a  great 
plague,  not  long  since."  Six  savages  accompanied  them 
the  next  day,  bearing  their  arms  and  clothes,  and  carrying 
them  over  the  fords  on  their  shoulders. 

Their  errand  was  happily  accomplished,  though  at  the 
cost  of  a  distressing  experience  of  the  poverty  and  filth 
of  Indian  hospitality.  The  housekeeping  of  the  greatest 
chief  of  the  tribes  between  Narragansett  Bay  and  the 
Piscataqua  was  at  the  smallest  possible  remove  above 
brute  life.  Massasoit  avowed  himself  well  content  to 
renew  the  alliance,  and  promised  to  promote  the  traffic  in 
skins,  to  furnish  a  supply  of  corn  for  seed,  and  to  ascer- 
tain the  owners  of  the  underground  granaries  rifled  by 
the  English  in  the  winter,  so  that  restitution  might  be 
made.  He  told  them  of  the  Narragansetts,  a  strong  tribe 
dwelling  further  to  the  west,  which  had  not  suffered  from 
the  recent  pestilence,  and  advised  them  to  arrest  the  trade 


184  HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

between  that  people  and  "the  Frenchmen."^  He  had  no 
food  to  offer  the  envoys,  and  their  lodging  in  his  sty  was 
of  the  most  comfortless  description.  The  following  day, 
he  invited  them  to  a  share,  with  forty  Indians,  in  three 
small  fishes.  On  the  fifth  day  of  their  absence  from  the 
settlement  they  returned,  faint  and  giddy  for  want  of  sleep 
and  food.^ 

A  boy  of  the  company  having  gone  astray  in  the  woods, 
ten  men,  accompanied  by  Squanto  and  another  native. 
Visit  to  went  in  search  of  him  in  a  boat,  to  the  southern 
Nauset.  coast  of  tlio  bay,  whither  they  had  intelligence 
of  his  having  wandered.^  The  first  night,  they  put  in  at 
the  harbor  of  Cummaquid,  now  Barnstable,  where  they 
were  courteously  received  by  the  sachem,  named  lyan- 
nough,  and  were  assailed  with  angry  language  by  a 
woman  whose  son  had  been  kidnapped  by  Captain  Hunt. 
The  next  day,  attended  by  lyannough,  they  proceeded  to 
Nauset,  now  Eastham,  the  place  of  the  attack  upon  the 
exploring  party  in  the  preceding  autumn.  Here  the  boy 
was  surrendered,  and  an  arrangement  was  made  to  pay 
at  Plymouth  for  the  corn  which  had  been  taken  away. 
"  Not  less  than  a  hundred  "  savages  came  about  them  at 
this  interview.  On  the  third  day  they  returned  home,  the 
more  hastily  for  a  story  told  them  at  Nauset,  that  their 
ally,  Massasoit,  had  been  carried  off  by  the  Narragansetts. 
Their  renewed  observations,  in  summer-time,  on  the  place 
where  they  had  at  first  proposed  to  build,  afforded  them 
the  satisfaction  of  concluding  that  its  soil  was  "  not  so 
good  for  corn  as  where  they  were." 

1  ]\Iourt,  Journal,  45.  But  I  suppose  "^  The  date  of  this  expedition  also  is 
this  was  a  mistake  of  Winslow's,  and  inu-prtain,  though  the  account  of  it  be- 
that  Massasoit  spoke  of  the  Dutch.  gins:  "  The  11th  of  June  we  sot  forth." 

2  "  We  set  forward  the  10th  of  June."  (i\Iourt,  4f).)  This  and  the  previous 
(Mourt's  Ivclation,  41.)  But  it  is  prob-  date  of  ^lourt  could  not  both  be  cor- 
able,  from  Bradford's  statement  (102)  rect,  as  then  the  expeditions  to  Nauset 
and  other  considerations,  that  the  ex-  and  to  ^lassasoit's  country  would  liave 
pedition  was  in  the  first  week  of  July,  been  contemporaneous,  whereas  Squan- 
The  question  of  this  date  has  no  rela-  to  is  said  to  have  been  in  both. 

tions  that  make  it  worth  discussing. 


Chap.  V.]  PLYMOUTH.  185 

Their  return  was  welcome,  for  they  were  half  the  force 
of  the  colony ;   and  in  their  absence  information  had  come 
of  dangerous  intrigues  on  the  part  of  Corbitant,  a  chief 
subordinate  to  Massasoit  and  supposed  to  be  attached  to 
the  Narragansetts.     The  report  was,  that  he  was  aiming 
to  detach*  Massasoit  from  the  alliance  lately  made,  and  that 
he  had  threatened  violence  against  Squanto,  Hobbamak, 
and  Tokamahamon,  counsellors  of  the  sachem  friendly  to 
the  English.     Hobbamak  soon  after  escaped  with  difficulty 
to  the  settlement,  bringing  intelligence  of  the  apprehen- 
sion of  Squanto.     Standish,  with  some  twelve  men,  well 
armed,  was  sent  back  with  Hobbamak  to  protect 
their  friend,  and  counteract  the  plot.    At  midnight,  Expedition 
alter  a  rainy  day,  and  a  weary  march,  lengthened 
by  the^ir  having   strayed  from  the   path,  they  beset  the 
wigwam  of  Corbitant  at  Namasket.    Not  finding  him  there, 
they  disarmed  his  people,  who  were  thrown  into  conster- 
nation by  the  report  of  their  fire-arms.     The  next  day, 
leaving  for  him  a  message  of  caution  against  the  repe- 
tition of  hostile  attempts  upon  their  friends,  they 
returned  to  Plymouth,  accompanied  by  Squanto, 
whom   they  had  rescued,   a  wounded  man  and  woman 
whom  they  brought  to  be  treated  by  their  physician,  and 
others  who  volunteered  to  carry  their  arms  and  knapsacks. 
They  had  killed  none.     The  good  effect  upon  their  savage 
neighbors  of  this  prompt  action  was  presently  apparent. 
Nine  sachems,  representing  jurisdictions  extending  from 
Charles  River  to  Buzzard's  Bay,  came  into  the    sept,  is. 

/  1  ^  •^       1  •  J.'  1  "I    •    1       il  Submission 

town,  and  subscribed  a  writing  by  which  tney  of  nine  sa- 
"  acknowledged  themselves  to  be  loyal  subjects  of  '^'"""^• 
King  James  "  ;  which  was  but  a  way  of  engaging  to  keep 
the  peace  with  his  subjects  at  Plymouth.^ 

The  last  expedition  of  the  season  was  to  the  bay  on 
which  Boston  now  stands,  called  in  the  contem-  visit  to 
poraneous  record  Massachusetts  Baj/.      Standish  ^o^^onBay. 

1  Morton, Memorial,  67;  comp.  Bradford,  104. 
16* 


186  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

and  nine  others,  with  three  Indians  to  interpret,  of  whom 
Snuanto  was  one,  embarked  at  midni<2:ht  with  the 

Sept.  20.  ^        .  .  ^ 

ebb-tide,  ihe  second  morning  they  hmded  upon 
a  beach  under  a  cliff,^  and  received  the  submission  of  a 
chief  on  a  promise  of  being  a  "  safeguard  from  his  enemies." 
They  surveyed  the  "fifty  islands"  of  Boston  harbor;  and, 
passing  the  night  on  board  their  boat,  went  on  shore 
again  the  following  day,  and  walked  a  few  miles  into  the 
country.  They  observed  land  which  had  been  cultivated, 
two  forts  in  decay,  untenanted  huts,  and  other  tokens  of 
recent  depopulation.  They  noted  "  the  fair  entrance "  of 
the  river  Charles,  and  "harbors  for  shipping"  than  which 
"  better  cannot  be."  They  conciliated  the  few  natives 
whom  they  met,  and  traded  with  them  for  some  skins. 
They  learned  that  the  principal  personage  in  the  neigh- 
borhood was  the  female  chief,  or  "  squaw  sachem,"  of 
Massachusetts,  that  it  had  suffered  from  hostile  incursions 
of  the  Tarratines,  and  that  its  people  owned  a  certain  alle- 
giance to  Massasoit.  The  third  evening,  by  "  a  light 
moon,"  the  party  set  sail  for  home,  which  they  reached 

before  the  followinoj  noon.      The  accounts  they 

Sept.  sa  °  '' 

brought  of  the  place  explored  naturally  made 
their  friends  "  wish  they  had  been  seated  there." 

"  They  began  now  to  gather  in  the  small  harvest  they 
had."  The  husbandry  of  the  year  had  proved  a  pros- 
in.proved  porous  beginning.  The  rivers  supplied  manure 
prospects.  '^^  abuudauce,  and  the  weather  had  been  not  un- 
favorable. "  All  the  summer  there  was  no  want."  The 
pease  turned  out  "  not  Avortli  the  gathering ;  the  sun 
parched  them  in  the  blossom";  but  the  barley  was  "in- 
different good,"  and  there  was  "  a  good  increase  of  Indian 
corn."  "  They  had  about  a  peck  of  meal  a  week  to  a 
person,  or  now,  since  harvest,  Indian  corn  to  that  propor- 

1  Dr.  Belknap  (Amer.Biog.,  II.  22-1)  afterwards    built.       This    is   uncertain; 

understood  this  clifT  to  have  been  Copp's  see  Drake's  "History  and  Anti(iuitie3 

Hill,  the  noithernniost  eminence  of  the  of  Boston,"  44,  note. 
three,  on  and  about  which  Boston  was 


Chap.  V.]  PLYMOUTH.  187 

tion/'  The  cod  and  bass  fishing  had  aifordcd  ample  sup- 
plies. Seven  substantial  dwelling-houses  had  been  built, 
"  and  four  for  the  use  of  the  plantation,"  ^  while  others 
were  in  progress.  Fowl  were  so  abundant  in  the  autumn, 
that  "  four  men  in  one  day  killed  as  much  as,  with  a  little 
help  beside,  served  the  company  almost  a  week."  "  There 
was  great  store  of  wild  turkeys,  of  which  they  took  many, 
besides  venison."  The  fowlers  had  been  sent  out  by  the 
Governor,  "  that  so  they  might,  after  a  special  manner, 
rejoice  together  after  they  had  gathered  the  fruit  of  their 
labors  "  ;  —  the  first  celebration  of  the  national  festival  of 
New  England,  the  autumnal  Thanksgiving  On  that  occa- 
sion of  hilarity,  they  "exercised  their  arms,"  and  for  three 
days  "  entertained  and  feasted  "  Massasoit  and  some  ninety 
of  his  people,  who  made  a  contribution  of  five  deer  to 
the  festivity.^  Health  was  restored ;  household  fires  were 
burning ;  and  in  good  heart  and  hope  the  lonely  company 
disposed  themselves  to  meet  the  rigor  of  another  w^inter. 

Before   the  winter  set  in,  tidings  from    England  had 
come,  to  relieve  the  long  year  s  lonesomeness ;  and  a  wel- 
come addition  was  made  to  the  sadly  diminished  number. 
The  Fortune,  a  vessel  of  fifty-five  tons'  burden,     ^^^  ^ 
reached  Plvmouth  after  a  passage  of  four  months,  Amv-ai  of 

.  the  Fortune. 

with  Cushman  and  some  thirty  other  emigrants. 

The  men  who  now  arrived  outnumbered  those  of  their 

predecessors  who  were  still  living. 

It  would  be  an  error  to  suppose  that  the  community 
planted  at  Plymouth  was  of  a  strictly  homoge-  character  of 
neous  character.^     The  devoted  men,  who  at  Ley-  "'^  <:o>on'«ts- 

1  We  collect  here  and  there  a  Mnt  and    linseed   oil    for    your    windows." 

as  to  the  construction  of  the  houses.     A  (Winslow,  in  Mourt,  64.) 

storm  on  the  4th  of  February  (in  the  ^  Ibid.,  GO,  61. 

worst  of  the  sickness)  "  caused  much  3  a  Our  company  are  for  the  most  part 
daubing  of  our  houses  to  fall  down "  very  religious,  honest  people."  (Let- 
(Mourt,  30)  ;  this  was  the  clay  or  other  ter  of  William  Hilton,  sent  from  Ply- 
earth  whicli  filled  the  chinks  between  mouth  in  December,  1621,  and  first  pub- 
the  logs.  Winslow  wrote  to  persons  lished  in  1622,  in  the  second  edition  of 
proposing  to  emigrate,   "  Bring  paper  John  Smith's  "  New  England's  Trials.") 


188  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

den  had  debated  the  question  of  emigration,  did  not  con- 
stitute the  whole  company  even  of  the  Mayflower.  They 
had  been  joined  in  England  by  several  strangers,  who, 
like  themselves,  had  come  under  engagements  to  the 
London  Adventurers.  That  partnership  had  business 
objects,  and  was  by  no  means  solely  swayed  by  a  re- 
ligious sympathy  with  the  emigrants  from  Leydcn.  It 
may  be  presumed  that  the  persons  in  England  who  would 
volunteer,  or  be  induced,  to  take  part  in  the  transactions 
with  Robinson's  congregation,  would  generally  be  such  as 
were  under  similar  religious  influences ;  but  there  is  no 
proof  that  the  Leyden  people  had  any  efl'ectual  control 
over  the  selection  of  their  companions  whom  the  partners 
w-ere  to  send.  Certain  it  is,  that  Robinson  understood  the 
society  to  be  composed  of  not  altogether  accordant  materi- 
als, when  assembled  at  Southampton  for  the  embarkation.^ 
And  before  the  landing  at  Cape  Cod,  the  manifestation  of 
a  disorderly  spirit  had  been  the  immediate  occasion  of  a 
compact  for  the  institution  of  a  government.  The  first 
half-year  was  not  ended,  when  John  Billington,  who  ten 
years  later  was  hung  for  murder,  was  "  sentenced  by  the 
whole  company  to  have  his  neck  and  heels  tied 

March.  L         J 

together  for  contempt  of  the  Captain's  lawful 
command  with  opprobrious  speeches."  He  "  came  from 
London,"  and  Bradford  "  knew  not  by  what  friends  shuf- 
fled into  their  company."^     Dotey  and  Lister,  for  fighting 

a  duel  "with  sword  and  da2:c:er,"  were  "adjudged 

Juno  18.  1  ,      •       1  -,  T 

by  the  whole  company  to  have  their  head  and 
feet  tied  together,  and  so  to  lie  for  twenty-four  hours 
without  meat  or  drink."  They  had  come  over  as  servants 
to  Mr.  Hopkins,  and  the  country  did  not  suit  Lister, 
who,  as  soon  as  his  time  was  out,  removed  to  Virginia. 

1  Sec  above,  p.  1C2.  amongst    lliom    from   the   first,   which 

2  Bradford,  277.  Bradford  had  came  out  of  England,  and  more  after- 
found  him  out  early.  "He  is  a  knave,  wards  by  some  of  the  Adventurers,  as 
and  so  will  live  and  die."  (Letter  to  friendship  or  other  affections  led  them." 
Cushman  of  June  9,   1625.)      "They  (Bradford,  214.) 

had     some    untoward    ])crsons    mixed 


Chap.  V.]  PLYMOUTH.  189 

Of  the  twenty  men  of  the  Mayflower's  company  who 
had  survived  the  first  winter,  eleven  are  favorably  known. 
The  rest  are  either  known  unfavorably  (as  Billington, 
Dotey,  and  Lister),  or  else  only  by  name.^  The  advantage 
in  number,  and  the  authority  of  superior  character,  deter- 
mined that  events  should  proceed  at  Plymouth  according 
to  the  policy  of  Bradford,  Brewster,  and  their  friends.  But 
internal  tendencies  to  disturbance  are  not  to  be  left  out  of 
view  in  a  consideration  of  the  embarrassments  wdth  which 
they  had  to  struggle.™  The  arrival  of  a  ship  with  passen- 
gers was  not  an  occasion  of  unmingled  pleasure.  In  the 
urgent  need  that  existed  for  a  reinforcement,  the  Adven- 
turers could  not  be  fastidious,  nor  is  it  improbable  that 
they  would  freely  use  the  opportunity  to  rid  themselves  of 
troublesome  dependents.  Of  the  twenty-five  men  brought 
out  by  the  Fortune,  some  were  old  friends  of  the  colonists, 
at  Leyden.^  Others  were  persons  Avho  added  to  the  moral 
as  well  as  to  the  numerical  strength  of  the  settlement. 
But  there  were  not  wanting  such  as  became  subjects  for 
anxiety  and  coercion.^ 

1  In  respect  to  six,  however,  of  those  2  a  j^  these  hard  and  difficult  begin- 

whom  I  have  placed  in  the  last  class,  nings,  they  found  some  discontents  and 

it   may  be   inferred,    from    Bradford's  murmurings  arise  among  some,  and  mu- 

subsequent  mention  of  Cooke,  Eaton,  tinous  speeches  and  can-iage  in  other ; 

Brown,   and   Soule,    (4.51,  453,  454,)  but  they  were  soon  quelled  and  over- 

that  they  were  orderly  persons  at  least ;  come  by  the  wisdom,  patience,  and  just 

while  "  Gardiner  became  a  seaman,  and  and  equal  carriage  of  things   by   the 

died  in  England,  or  at  sea,"  and  Gil-  Governor  and  better  part,  which  clave 

bert    Winslow,    Bradford    says    (454),  faithfully  together  in  the  main."    (Ibid., 

"after   divers   years'   abode    here,    re-  91.) 

turned  into  England,  and  died  there."  3  Winslow  (Brief  Narration,InHypoc- 

Besides  the  "twenty,"  there  were  Tre-  risie  Unmasked,  393)  mentions  two  of 

vor  and  Ely,  of  whom  we  only  know  the  Fortune's  passengers,  Simonson  and 

that  they  were  "  seamen  hired  to  stay  a  Delano  (De  la  Noye,  a  person  of  French 

year  in  the  country,"  and  that,  "when  extraction),  as  having  been  members  of 

their  time  was  out,  they  both  returned."  the  Leyden  church.     Thomas  Prince, 

In   the   eleven  "  favorably   known "   I  afterwards  (xovernor,  came  in  this  ves- 

have  included  Isaac  AUerton,  who  at  sel,  and  John  Winslow,   a  brother  of 

this  time  was  entirely  trusted,  though  Edward.       Cushman   brought  hia  son, 

at  a  later  period  he  incurred  much  and  there  was  a  son  of  Brewster, 

reproach.  4  u  Lusty  young  men,  and  many  of 


190  HISTORY  OF  KEW  EXGLAXD.  [Book  I. 

The  patent  from  the  London  Company,  under  which  the. 

emigrants  had  expected  to  possess  their  American  home, 

was  rendered  useless  by  their  landinof  so  far  to 

111  success  of  •^  ... 

the  London  tho  uorth.  That  branch  of  the  Virginia  corpora- 
tion had  never  prospered.  Successive  charters, 
with  extended  privileges,  had  failed  to  infuse  energy  into  its 
management.^  The  operations  of  its  heroic  officer,  John 
Smith,  had  been  thwarted,  till  he  withdrew  discouraged 
from  its  service ;  and  the  colony  at  Jamestown  seemed 
flickering  to  its  extinction,  when  it  took  new  life  from 
the  example  of  the  settlement  at  Plymouth.  At  home, 
the  counsels  of  the  Company  had  been  paralyzed  by  in- 
ternal dissension  and  by  the  king's  hostility,  excited  both 
by  his  relations  to  the  Spanish  court,  which  desired  to 
repel  neighbors  from  its  settlement  in  Florida,  and  by 
his  pique  against  some  of  the  principal  men  of  the  Com- 
pany, who  were  popular  leaders  in  Parliament.  The 
J620.  Leyden  congregation  were  just  preparing  for  their 
April.  I'emoval,  when  the  king  forbade  the  re-election  of 
their  friend,  Sir  Edwin  Sandys,  as  Governor  and  Treas- 
urer of  the  Company.  His  mandate  was  obeyed;  but, 
instead  of  his  nominee,  the  Earl  of   Southampton  was 

them  wild  enough."     (Bradford,  106.)  openly,    some   pitching   the   bar,    and 

"  The  plantation  was  glad  of  this  ad-  some  at  stool-ball,  and  such  like  sports, 

ditionofsti-ength,  but  could  have  wished  So  he  went  to  them   and   took  away 

that  many  of  them  had  been  of  better  their  implements,  and  told  them  that 

condition,  and  all  of  them  better  fur-  was  against  his   conscience,   that  they 

nished  with  provisions;  but  that  could  should  play  and  others  work.     If  they 

not  be  helped."    (Ibid.)     "  On  the  day  made  their  keeping  of  it  matter  of  devo- 

called    Christmas   Day,   the   Governor  tion,  let  them  keep  their  houses,  but 

called  them  out  to  work,  as  was  used ;  there  should  be  no  gaming  or  revelling 

but  the  most  of  this  new  company  ex-  in  the  streets.     Since  which  time  noth- 

cused    themselves,    and    said    it   went  ing  hath  been  attempted  that  way,  at 

against   their   consciences  to  work  on  least  openly."     (Ibid.,  112.) 
that  day.     So  the  Governor  told  them         ^  The  three  charters  of  ICOC,  1609, 

that,  if  they  made  it  matter  of  con-  and  1612  are  in  Hazard,  I.  50,  58,  72. 

science,  he  "would  spare  them  till  they  The  first  included  both  the  London  and 

were  better  informed.     So  he  led  away  Tlymouth   Companies,   or   Colonics,  as 

the  rest,  and  left  them  ;  but  when  they  they  were  called.     (See  above,  pp.  81, 

came  home  at  noon  from  their  work,  82.)      The  last  two  conferred  powers 

he  found   them  in   the  street  at  play  on  the  London  branch  only. 


Chap.  V.] 


PLYMOUTH. 


191 


chosen,  a  statesman  equally  obnoxious  to  the  royal  dis- 
pleasure.^ 


1  The  troubles  of  the  Virginia  Com- 
pany, in  its  contest  with  the  court,  are 
set  forth  at  large  in  Peckard's  "  Life  of 
Nicholas  Ferrar,"  the  Protestant  monk, 
who,  before  his  seclusion,  had,  as  Dep- 
uty-Governor of  the  Company,  shown 
extraordinary  ability  in  the  manage- 
ment of  its  affairs.  I  have  only  an 
abridgment  of  that  work,  published  by 
Joseph  ]\Iasters  (London,  1852).  The 
story  is  therein  told,  in  pp.  G7-91,  94, 
95. 

The  friendliness  of  Sir  Edwin  Sandys 
to  Robinson's  congregation  has  been 
already  mentioned.  (See  above,  pp. 
151,  152.)  Hume  (Chap.  XLVIIL) 
commemorates  "  his  activity  and  vigor 
in  discharging  his  duty  as  a  member  of 
Parliament."  In  1614,  the  king  had 
committed  hira  to  the  Tower  for  some 
freedoms  in  debate.  He  was  known  as 
a  man  of  letters,  having  published  met- 
rical versions  of  some  portions  of  Scrip- 
ture, and  written  a  work  entitled  "  Eu- 
rope Speculum,  or  a  View  or  Survey 
of  the  State  of  ReHgion  in  the  AVestern 
Parts  of  the  World,"  wherein  he  record- 
ed the  results  of  personal  observations 
in  all  the  countries  of  Southern  Europe, 
except  Spain.  The  copy  Avhich  I  have 
read  is  of  an  edition  published  at  the 
Hague  in  1G29.  From  the  Preface  it 
appears  that  Sir  Edwin  was  not  known 
to  have  deceased  (though  he  died  in 
that  year),  and  that  the  publication  was 
unauthorized  by  him.  The  Preface  also 
declares,  that  there  had  been  an  earlier 
edition,  in  1G05,  from  "  a  spurious  stolen 
copy,  in  part  epitomized,  in  part  ampli- 
fied," and  that,  "  since  that  time,  thci-e 
had  been  another  impression  of  the 
same."  I  know  no  book  which  conveys 
so  lively  an  idea  of  the  state  of  mind 
of  a  large  class  of  reflecting  Protestants 
at  that  period.  The  author's  reason  is 
fully  satisfied  of  the   necessity  of  the 


Reformation  from  Romanism.  But  the 
influences  of  early  training  still  embar- 
rass him.  He  is  full  of  anxiety  for  the 
result  of  the  contest.  And  he  inclines 
much  to  the  opinion,  that  the  methods 
of  the  Papists  for  winning  and  securing 
disciples  should  be  adopted  by  their 
opponents.  The  struggle  within  him 
between  the  old  feeling  of  conservatism 
and  the  conviction  of  a  need  of  change 
is  curiously  manifest. 

While  the  treaty  for  a  marriage  be- 
tween Prince  Charles  and  the  Infanta 
was  pending,  Spain  exerted  great  con- 
trol over  the  EngHsh  councils,  —  part- 
ly, it  was  believed,  through  money 
used  for  corruption.  Gondomar,  the 
Spanish  ambassador,  had  helped  to  in- 
fluence King  James  against  Sandys,  by 
representing  him  as  hostile  to  the  pro- 
posed match.  In  a  MS.  volume  in  the 
State-Paper  Office,  entitled  "  America 
and  West  Indies,"  at  page  507,  is  a 
letter,  of  June  7,  1621,  addressed  by 
Sandys  to  "  the  Right  Honorable  my 
most  honored  good  Lord,  the  Marquis 
of  Buckingham,  Lord  High  Admiral  of 
England."  In  it  he  says:  "I  under- 
stand, by  the  last  boastings  of  Sir 
Thomas  Smith  and  his  partisans,  of 
their  sedulous  endeavors  by  a  cloud  of 
untruths  to  make  a  fresh  interposition 
between  the  most  joyful  sight  of  his 
Majesty's  favor,  and  the  darkness  where- 
with myself  and  my  service  rest  yet  ob- 
scured, an  attempt  of  strange  malignity." 
He  represents,  that,  by  God's  blessing 
his  labors,  "  more  hath  been  done  in 
one  year,  with  less  than  eight  thousand 
pounds,  for  the  advancement  of  that 
Colony  [Virginia]  in  people  and  store 
of  commodities,  than  was  done  in  Sir 
Thomas  Smith's  twelve  jears  with  ex- 
pense of  near  eighty  thousand  pounds." 
He  declares  himself  willing  to  give  one 
more  year's  service  to  it,  if  the  king  de- 


192 


HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 


[Book  I. 


The  king  showed  his  resentment  by  favoring  the  inter- 
incorporation  csts  of  thc  rivul  Company,  and  of  this  disposition 
Gorges  did  not  fail  to  take  advantage.  Reviving 
from  their  recent  discouragement,^  he  and  his  as- 
sociates sohcited,  and  with  no  difficulty  obtained,  a  new 
incorporation,  under  the  title  of  "  The  Council 
established  at  Plymouth,  in  the  County  of  Devon, 
for  the  planting,  ordering,  ruling,  and  governing  of  New 
England  in  America.""     Most  of  the  forty  patentees  of 


of  the  Coun- 
cil for  New 
Eniiland. 


1G20. 
Nov.  3. 


sires.  If  not,  he  will  gladly  retire,  and 
avoid  offering  offence  to  his  Majesty. 

Loixl  Southampton,  Sandys's  friend, 
who  succeeded  him  as  Governor  of  the 
Virginia  Company,  continued  in  that 
office  till  its  dissolution,  which  took  place 
in  June,  lG24,by  judgment  of  the  Court 
of  King's  Bench  on  a  writ  of  quo  tvar- 
ranto  issued  in  November  of  the  pre- 
vious year.  These  measures  against 
the  Company  had  been  preceded  by 
sharp  disputes  within  it.  "  Tliere  is  a 
great  faction  fallen  out  in  the  Virginia 
Company,"  &c.  "  The  last  week,  the 
Earl  of  Warwick  and  the  Lord  Caven- 
dish fell  so  foul  at  a  Virginia  or  Ber- 
mudas court,  that  the  he  passed  and 
repassed,  and  they  are  got  over  to  try 
their  fortune."  (Letters  of  Chamber- 
lain to  Sir  Dudley  Carleton,  April  ID 
and  July  2G,  1623,  in  Birch's  "Court 
and  Times  of  James  the  First,"  IL  389, 
413.) 

On  the  dissolution  of  the  Company, 
Mr.  Ferrar,  the  Deputy-Governor,  is 
said  (Life  of  Nicholas  Ferrar,  98)  to 
have  "  seen  the  attested  copies  of  all 
the  books  and  papers  belonging  to 
them  delivered  into  safe  custody  in  thc 
Dorset  family."  It  is  these  copies,  I 
suppose,  which,  having  come  into  the 
possession  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  now  belong 
to  the  Law  Library  at  Washington,  in 
consequence  of  the  purchase  by  t"he 
government  of  the  papers  of  that  states- 
man. When  Dr.  Peckard  wrote  his 
Life  of  Ferrar,  about  1790,  he  applied 


for  them  to  the  Duke  of  Dorset,  but 
they  were  not  to  be  found.  Before 
that  time,  it  seems,  thoy  had  been  con- 
veyed to  this  country.  Stith  (His- 
tory of  Virginia,  Preface,  v.,  vi.)  says 
he  was  informed  by  Colonel  B}Td  of 
Virginia  that  his  father  purchased  them 
in  England  of  the  executors  of  the  Earl 
of  Southampton  for  sixty  guineas. 
Those  which  Stith  saw,  and  lai-gely 
used  for  his  work,  were  in  three  vol- 
umes, two  of  which  contained  a  regular 
journal  of  proceedings  from  April  28, 
1C19,  the  time  of  Sandys's  election  as 
Governor,  to  the  time  of  the  dissolution 
of  the  Company.  They  were  at  one 
time  in  the  possession  of  the  Randolph 
family. 

1  See  above,  p.  98. 

2  Gorges,  Briefe  Narration,  Chap. 
XVI.  The  petitioners  had  asked 
(March  3,  1620)  "that  their  territory 
may  be  called,  as  by  the  Prince  his 
Highness  it  hath  been  named,  Neio 
Englaiul."  The  patent  is  in  Hazard,  I. 
103.  The  royal  warrant  for  its  prep- 
aration had  been  issued,  July  23. 
(Hazard,  I.  99.)  Acquainted  with  this 
movement,  W^eston  and  others  had,  be- 
fore the  embarkation  at  Leyden,  rec- 
ommended the  taking  of  a  patent  from 
the  Council  for  New  England,  rather 
than  from  the  Virginia  Company. 
(Bradford,  44.) 

Of  the  records  of  the  Council  for  New 
England,  two  portions  survive  among 
the  documents  in  the  State-Paper  Office 


Chap.  V.] 


PLYMOUTH. 


193 


this  Council  were  men  of  distinguished  consequence. 
Thirteen  were  peers,  some  of  them  of  the  highest  rank. 
It  was  empowered  to  hold  territory  in  America,  extending 
westward  from  sea  to  sea,  and  in  breadth  from  the  for- 
tieth to  the  forty-eighth  degree  of  north  latitude. 

Upon  lands  of  this  corporation  Bradford  and  his  com- 
panions had  sat  down  without  leave,  and  were  of  course 
liable  to  be  summarily  expelled.  Informed  of  their  po- 
sition by  the  return  of  the  Mayflower  to  England  in  the 
spring,  their  friends  obtained  from  the  Coun- 
cil a  patent  which  was  brought  by  the  For- 
tune.^    It  was  taken  out  in  the  name  of  "John  Pierce, 


1621. 
Nov.  9. 


in  London.  The  first  (consisting  of 
forty  pages,  if  my  memorandum  is  cor- 
rect) is  bound  in  the  beginning  of  the 
first  volume  of  the  series  entitled  "Board 
of  Trade."  Its  title,  "  A  Journal  of  the 
Council  of  Trade  from  the  last  of  May, 
1622,  to  the  21st  of  June,  1623,"  which 
is  in  a  much  more  modern  handwriting, 
and  was  prefixed,  as  I  think  there  can 
be  no  doubt,  by  some  person  who  did 
not  understand  the  character  of  the  doc- 
ument, has  concealed  it  from  the  knowl- 
edge of  inquirers  in  later  times.  It  has 
been  injured  by  fire.  Mr.  Felt,  who 
had  seen  it,  quotes  it  (Ecclesiastical  His- 
tory, &c.,  I.  68)  under  the  title  of"  Coun- 
cil Records  of  London."  Mr.  Deane,  in 
his  edition  of  Bradford  (209),  and  Mr. 
Haven  (Archasol.  Amer.,  III.  54),  more 
precisely  recognize  the  memoranda  of 
Mr.  Felt  as  being  from  "  the  Records 
of  the  Council  for  New  England." 

The  other  fragment  is  the  tenth  par- 
cel in  the  file,  in  the  State-Paper  Office, 
designated  by  the  number  485.  It  is, 
I  suppose,  no  part  of  the  original  Jour- 
nal, but  of  a  copy,  made  probably  in 
the  year  1674,  when  the  project  to  send 
Randolph  to  New  England  was  matur- 
ing. It  extends  over  the  time  between 
November,  1631,  and  November,  1638. 
It  seems  that,  not  long  before  the 
VOL.  I.  17 


commission  of  Colonel  Nichols  and  oth- 
ers, in  1664,  the  Journal  was  placed  in 
the  hands  of  the  first  Lord  Clarendon, 
from  which  time  it  was  lost  sight  of. 
In  May,  1678,  "the  Lords  of  the  Com- 
mittee "  (that  is,  the  Privy  Council's 
Committee  of  Trade,  &c.,  estabhshed 
March  12,  1675)  applied  by  letter  to 
the  second  Lord  Clai'endon  for  "a  large 
book  in  folio,  bound  in  parchment,  of 
the  Records  of  the  Council  for  New 
England  from  1620  to  1635,"  which,  as 
they  had  learned  from  Robert  Mason, 
was  in  1662  delivered  by  him  to  the 
Earl's  father,  "  wherein,  among  other 
things,  are  contained  all  the  grants  made 
from  the  said  Council."  (Original  Pa- 
pers in  the  State-Paper  Office,  II.  151.) 
In  a  subsequent  letter,  Southwell,  Sec- 
retary of  the  Committee,  informs  Lord 
Clarendon  (Ibid.,  162)  that,  on  an  ex- 
amination of  the  Records  of  the  Privy 
Council,  he  finds  that  Mason's  claim 
cannot  be  substantiated,  unless  Lord 
Clarendon  can  find  the  book  lately 
applied  for. 

1  The  original  of  this  instrument, 
after  a  long  disappearance,  came  to 
light,  within  the  present  century,  in  the 
Land-Office  of  Massachusetts,  and  had 
been  seen  by  Judge  Davis  when  he  pre- 
pared his  edition  of  Morton's  "  Memo- 


194  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

citizen  and  cloth  worker  of  London,  and  his  associates," 
with  the  understanding  that  it  shoukl  be  held  in  trust  for 
Patent  from  tlic  Advcnturcrs,  of  whom  Pierce  was  one.  It 
flTxeT'"  ^^lowed  a  hundred  acres  of  land  for  every  colonist 
England.       gouc  aud  to  go  to  Ncw  England,  at  a  yearly  rent 

of  two  shillings  an  acre  after  seven  years.  It 
granted  fifteen  hundred  acres  for  public  uses,  and  liberty 
to  "hawk,  fish,  and  fowl";  to  "truck,  trade,  and  traffic 
with  the  savages  " ;  to  "  establish  such  laws  and  ordinances 
as  are  for  their  better  government,  and  the  same,  by  such 
officer  or  officers  as  they  shall  by  most  voices  elect  and 
choose,  to  put  in  execution";  and  to  "encounter,  expulse, 
repel,  and  resist  by  force  of  arms"  all  intruders,  and  other 
persons  who  should  "  enterprise  or  attempt  destruction, 
invasion,  detriment,  or  annoyance  to  the  said  plantation." 
The  number  of  colonists  was  to  be  reported  to  tlie  Coun- 
cil from  time  to  time,  and  they  were  to  "  apply  them- 
selves and  their  labors  in  a  large  and  competent  manner 
to  the  planting,  setting,  making,  and  procuring  of  good 
and  staple  commodities  in  and  upon  the  land  granted 
unto  them,  as  corn  and  silk-grass,  hemp,  flax,  pitch  and 
tar,  soap-ashes  and  pot-ashes,  iron,  clapboard,  and  other 
the  like  materials."  The  instrument  was  signed  for  the 
Council  by  the  Duke  of  Hamilton,  the  Duke  of  Lenox, 
the  Earl  of  Warwick,  Lord  Sheffield,  and  Sir  Ferdinando 
Gorges. 

At  the  end  of  five  weeks  after  her  arrival,  the  Fortune 

sailed  aijain  for  England.     She  had  brought  out  a 

Dec.  13.  ^  O  .... 

Sailing  of      letter  from  Weston,  complaining  in  harsh  terms 
that    the    Mayflower    had    returned    without   a 


rial."    (Davis's  Morton,  p.  73.)     Again  Dcane,  of  Cambridge.     A  copy,  ccrti- 

it  was  lost  sight  of,  and  was  given  up  fied  by  Samuel  Wells  of  Boston,  July 

by  the   antiquaries   (Young,    Pilgrims,  28,  1743,  to  have  been  exactly  taken 

235),  till  once  more  discovered,  in  1854,  from  the  original,  then  in  his  custody, 

among  Judge   Davis's  papers.     It  has  probably  for  an  examination  of  some 

since    been   published    in   a   beautiful  title,   has  been  in  the   librarj'^  of  the 

edition    by    that    accomplished     New-  American  Antifjuarian  Society  at  Wor- 

England     arclueologist,     !Mr.     Charles  cester  for  more  than  twenty  years. 


Chap.  V.]  PLYMOUTH.  195 

freight.  "  That  you  sent  no  ladmg  in  the  ship  is  won- 
derful, and  worthily  distasted.  I  know  your  weakness 
was  the  cause  of  it,  and,  I  believe,  more  weakness  of 
judgment  than  weakness  of  hands.  A  quarter  of  the  time 
you  spent  in  discoursing,  arguing,  and  consulting  would 
have  done  much  more."  He  desired  a  fair  engrossment 
of  the  contract  with  the  Adventurers,  subscribed  with  the 
names  of  the  principal  planters ;  ^  and  he  abounded  in 
protestations  that  he  would  adhere  to  the  engagements, 
though  all  the  other  Adventurers  should  be  discouraged.^ 
The  dignified  reply  of  Bradford  is  penetrated  with  an 
unconscious  pathos.  On  the  side  of  the  settlers,  he  says, 
there  had  been  disappointments  far  more  serious.  "  The 
loss  of  many  honest  and  industrious  men's  lives  cannot  be 
valued  at  any  price.  It  pleased  God  to  visit  us  with  death 
daily,  and  with  so  general  a  disease  that  the  living  Avere 
scarce  able  to  bury  the  dead,  and  the  well  not  in  any 
measure  sufficient  to  tend  the  sick.  And  now  to  be  so 
greatly  blamed  for  not  freighting  the  ship  doth  indeed 
go  near  us,  and  much  discourage  us."^ 

The  Fortune  carried  homeward  "  two  hogsheads  of 
beaver-skins,  and  good  clapboards  as  full  as  she  could 
hold ;  the  freight  estimated  at  five  hundred  pounds." 
But  the  remittance  failed  through  her  capture  and  pil- 
lage, near  the  coast  of  England,  by  a  French  privateer. 
Cushman,  who  had  come  in  that  vessel,  returned  in  her, 
as  had  been  arranged  in  England,  to  make  a  personal 
report  to  the  Adventurers.  While  at  Plymouth,  he  had 
exercised  his  gifts  in  a  "  prophecy,"  which  was  cushman's 
printed  on  his  return  to  London ;  ^  an  interesting  ^''^p'^ecy- 
memorial  of  the    transactions  which   he   witnessed   and 

1  It   seems  that   the  indenture  had         2  "Weston's  letter,  in  Bradford,  107. 
never  been  executed,  in  consequence         3  Bradford's     letter,     in     Bradford, 

of  the  dispute  about  the  two  articles  109. 

last  inserted  (see  above,  p.  158).     The         *  Dr.  Young  has  reprinted  it  (PU- 

emigrants  now  yielded,  and   sent  the  grims,  262  et  seq.). 
contract  by  the  Fortune. 


196  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

took  part  in,  of  the  spirit  of  the  actors,  and  of  the  intelli- 
gence and  character  of  the  speaker. 

"We  know  too  well  how  the  first  winter  had  heen 
passed  hy  the  settlers.  Respecting  the  employments  of 
the  second,  we  have  less  information.  In  the  absence  of 
domestic  animals,  a  great  part  of  the  farmers  winter 
occupation  was  wanting  to  them.  Fishing,  hunting,  and 
the  collection  of  fuel  and  timber,  may  be  supposed  to 
have  made  their  chief  business,  varied  by  occasional 
traffic  with  Indian  visitors.  One  care  was  urgent  for  the 
passing  time,  and  must  have  weighed  on  their  spirits  as 
they  looked  into  the  future.  Not  only  had  the  Fortune 
Scarcity  brought  uo  suppUcs  to  America,  but  the  colonists 
of  food.  j^g^jj  Yiixd  to  straiten  themselves  to  supply  her  for 
the  return  voyage.  "  Upon  her  departure,  the  Governor 
and  his  assistants  disposed  the  late  comers  into  several 
families,  found  their  provisions  would  now  scarce  hold 
out  six  months  at  half  allowance,  and  therefore  put  them 
to  it,  which  they  bore  patiently." 

A  new  cause  for  solicitude  arose.  After  the  departure 
of  the  Fortune,  in  the  depth  of  winter,  came  a  rumor, 
Threats  of  tlirougli  thc  neighboring  Indians,  of  hostilities 
Narraga"n- '^  mcditatcd  agaiust  the  plantation  by  the  powerful 
setts.  tribe  of  Narragansetts.     It  was  confirmed  when 

a  messenger  from  Canonicus,  their  chief  sachem,  brought 
a  bundle  of  arrows  tied  with  a  snake-skin,  which  Squanto 
interpreted  as  a  declaration  of  war.  Against  the  English 
force  of  about  fifty  men,  the  Narragansetts,  as  they  had 
heard,  could  muster  five  thousand  warriors.  The  Gover- 
jnoo.  nor  sent  back  the  snake-skin  full  of  powder  and 
February.  \)q\\^  which  the  savagcs,  aflfrighted,  refused  to 
keep.  It  was  passed  for  a  Avhile  from  hand  to  hand 
among  them,  and  at  length  came  back  to  Plymouth. 
The  English  "  built  a  fort  with  good  timber,  both  strong 
and  comely,  which  was  of  good  defence,  made  with  a  flat 
roof   and    battlements,    on   which    their    ordnance    were 


Chap.  V.]  PLYMOUTH.  197 

mounted.  It  served  them  also  for  a  meeting-house,  and 
was  fitted  accordingly  for  that  use.  It  was  a  great  work 
for  them,  in  this  weakness  and  time  of  wants.  But  the 
danger  of  the  time  required  it,  and  also  the  hearing  of 
that  great  massacre  in  Virginia  made  all  hands  willing  to 
despatch  the  same."^  The  dwellings  were  barricaded;  the 
whole  settlement,  with  the  fort,  and  space  for  a  garden 
for  each  family,  was  enclosed  with  a  paling;  a  military 
organization  was  completed;  and  watch  and  ward  were 
constantly  kept.  These  precautions,  and  the  attitude  of 
defiance  which  had  been  assumed,  appear  to  have  discon- 
certed the  plan  of  invasion,  and  the  winter  passed  quietly 
away.  Early  in  the  spring,  a  native,  of  Squanto's 
family,  renewed  the  alarm  of  a  projected  inroad 
of  the  Narragansetts,  in  alliance  with  Massasoit ;  and  the 
Governor,  by  signal-guns,  recalled  a  party  which  had 
just  sailed  with  Standish  for  Boston  Bay.  But  the  report 
proved  to  be  unfounded,  and  was  afterwards  attributed  to 
unfriendliness  on  the  part  of  Squanto  towards  the  Poka- 
noket  chiefs 

1  Bradford,  126.  tract  by  Edward  Winslow  was  published 

2  Winslow,  Good  Newes  from  New  in  London  in  1624.  It  is  the  most  co- 
England,  or  a  True  Relation  of  Things  pious  authority  for  the  events  of  the 
very  Remarkable  at  the  Plantation  of  two  years  next  succeeding  those  em- 
Plymouth  in  Kew  England,  1  -  9.     This  braced  in  Mourt's  Journal. 


17* 


CHAPTEE  VI. 


It  was  but  a  transient  gleam  of  prosperity  that  had 
cheered  the  exiles  at  the  close  of  their  first  summer  in 

America.  Through  nearly  the  whole  of  the  next 
Scarcity       two  ycars,  they  were  struggling  with  hardship  in 

one  of  its  direst  forms.  "  A  famine  began  to 
pinch,"  which  was  not  wholly  relieved  till  the  second 
harvest  after  the  departure  of  the  Fortune. 

In  the  former  of  the  two  summers  that  intervened,  "  had 
they  not  been  where  were  divers  sorts  of  shell-fish,  they 
must  have  perished."  They  had  planted  nearly  sixty  acres 
with  corn,  and  in  their  gardens  they  had  some  vegetables ; 
but  "  the  crop  proved  scanty,  partly  through  weakness, 
for  want  of  food,  to  tend  it,  partly  through  other  business, 
and  partly  by  much  being  stolen,"  before  it  ripened,  by 
an  unruly  rout  of  Englishmen  lately  arrived  in  vessels 
of  Mr.  Weston.  Some  small  supplies  of  corn  were  pro- 
cured, in  short  expeditions  by  sea  and  land,  from  the  coast 
further  to  the  north,  and  more  from  the  neighboring 
natives.     From  vessels  "fishing  at  the  eastward"  AVins- 

low  obtained  "  as  much  bread  as  amounted  to  a 

May. 

quarter  of  a  pound  a  person  a  day,  till  harvest." 
As  winter  came  on,  they  were  "helped  with  fowl  and 
ground-nuts."    The  Governor  got  twenty-seven  or  twcnty- 

eicfht  honrshcads  of  corn  and  beans,  in  a  visit  to 

November.        On  '  ^ 

Boston   Bay  and  Cape  Cod,    from  which  latter 
region  he  returned  fifty  miles  on  foot,  "  receiving  all  re- 
spect that  could  be  from  the  Indians  in   his  journey." 
]r,o-3.      Another  supply  he  brought  later  from  the  head 
January.    q£  what  is  uow  Called  Buzzard's  Bay.-^ 

1  Bradford,  1 2 1  -  1 29.  —  WIn.slow,  Cood  Newcs,  11-21. 


Chap.  VI.]  PLYMOUTH.  199 

Standish,  on  errands  of  the  same  kind,  had  less  satisfac- 
tory intercourse  with  the  natives,  who  appeared  to  him  to 
have  treacherous  designs,  and  witli  whom  he  was  obliged 
two  or  three  times  to  resort  to  threats  to  obtain  restitution 
of  stolen  property.  On  one  occasion,  at  Manomet  (Sand- 
wich), he  fell  in  with  a  Massachusetts  Indian,  whose 
errand  he  understood  to  be  to  raise  a  general  conspiracy 
against  the  English,  and  whose  design  of  causing  his 
assassination  on  the  spot  he  had  to  use  both  address  and 
courage  to  defeat. 

Indian   corn,  boiled  or  roasted  in  the  green  ear,  is  in  its 
season   a  palatable  article  of  diet,  much  used   in  New 
England  at  the  present  day.     The  persons  who  weston's 
pilfered  the  unripe  grain  from  the  fields  of  the  at\vel'sT- 
settlers  in  the  second  summer  w^ere  of  a  party  ^'''®*'* 
sent  out  by  Mr.  "Weston  of  London,  whose  activity  in  the 
early  period  of  the  partnership  has  been  repeatedly  men- 
tioned.    Soon  after  writing  to  Plymouth  that  he     legj. 
would  "  never  quit  the  business,  though  all  the     """'^  °' 
other  Adventurers  should,"^  Weston  had  withdrawn  from 
them,  and  engaged  in  speculations  on  his  own  account. 
He  now  wrote  to  the  settlers,  "I  have  sold  my  ad-     1C22. 
venture  and  debts  unto  them,  so  as  I  am  quit  of   ^p"^  ^^' 
you,  and  you  of  me"  ;  and  two  vessels  of  his,  the  Charity 
and  the   Swan,  brought  fifty  or  sixty  men  "  to  settle  a 
plantation  for  him  in  the  Massachusetts  Bay,  for 

,.,,,,  ,  ...  -lune  or  July. 

which  he  had  procured  a  patent,"  as  his  private 
property.^      The   Plymouth   people  took   them   to   their 
homes,  gave  them  "  the  best  means  the  place  afforded," 

1  Bradford,  107.  Ibid.,  123.)  — "I   will  not   deny   but 

2  "  Xhe  people  wliicli  they  carry  are  there   are   many   of  our   people   rude 

no  men  for  us,  wherefore  I  pray  you  fellows, yet  I  presume  they 

entertain    them    not."     (Cushman    to  will  be  governed  by  such  as  I  set  over 

Bradford,  in  Bradford,  122.)  —  "  As  for  them.     And  I  hope  not  only  to  be  able 

Mr.   Weston's  company,  I  think  them  to  reclaim  them  from  that  profaneness 

so  base  in  condition,  for  the  most  part,  that  may  scandalize  the  voyage,  but  by 

as  in  all  appearance  not  fit  for  an  honest  degrees   to  draw  them   to   God,"   &c. 

man's  company."    (Pierce  to  Bradford,  (Weston  to  Bradford,  Ibid.,  121.) 


Its  disorders 

and  distress 

November. 


200  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  T. 

and  nursed  several  of  them  who  were  sick.  While  some 
went  in  search  of  a  place  of  abode,  the  rest  made  them- 
selves extremely  troublesome  guests ;  so  that  it  was  with 
great  satisfaction  that  at  length  their  hosts  saw  most  of 
them  depart  to  begin  a  plantation  at  Wessagusset  (now 
'\Ye}Tnouth),  leaving  the  infirm  of  their  number  to  be 
gratuitously  cared  for  at  Plymouth. 

By  disorder  and  waste,  Weston's  people  presently  fell 
short  of  provisions,  and,  as  winter  approached,  they  became 

anxious  for  a  further  supply.     They  proposed  to 
•   their  Plymouth  friends  to  join  them  in  purchases 

from  the  Indians ;  and  it  was  in  their  smaller 
vessel  that  Governor  Bradford  made  the  expedition,  which 
has  been  mentioned,  to  Boston  Bay  and  Cape  Cod.  But 
their  irregular  habits  were  not  corrected,  and  thev  could 
no  longer  expect  any  voluntary  relief  from  the  neighbor- 
ing natives,  whom  they  had  incensed  by  depredations  on 
their  cornfields  and  by  other  annoyances.  At  length,  their 
1003.  extremity  became  such,  that  Sanders,  their  chief 
Februar>'.  jj^^n,  scut  to  iufomi  Govcmor  Bradford  of  his 
intention  to  get  some  corn  from  the  Indians  by  force  to 
subsist  his  men,  while  he,  with  a  party,  should  sail  to  the 
eastward  for  a  supply  from  the  European  fishing-vessels. 
The  Plymouth  people  remonstrated  in  the  strongest  terms 
against  his  plan  of  robbery.  They  advised  him  to  make 
shift  to  live,  as  they  did,  on  ground-nuts,  clams,  and 
muscles,  and  sent  him  some  corn  from  their  own  scanty 
store  for  his  voyage.^ 

In  his  absence,  affairs  took  an  alarming  aspect  for  both 
settlements.  Intelligence  had  come  to  Plymouth  that 
Massasoit  was  desperately  ill,  and  that  a  Dutch  vessel  was 
lying  stranded  on  the  Narragansett  shore  near  his  dwell- 
ing. Both  these  matters  engaged  the  attention  of  the 
colonists.  They  owed  a  visit  of  sympathy  to  their  friend, 
and  they  desired  a  conference  with  the   Dutch  seamen. 

1  WInslow,  Good  Newes,  11  -  25,  34  -  37.  —  Bradford,  132. 


Chap.  VI.]  PLYMOUTH.  201 

Winslow,  who  by  his  residence  in  Holland  was  qualified 
for  the  latter  office,  was  sent  on  the  errand  with     March. 
"  Master  John  Hambden,  a  gentleman  of  Lon-  orwinsllw 
don."  ^     Before  they  reached  their  destination,  the  *"  '^^**'''^°"- 
vessel  had  been  got  off,  and  had  sailed  away.     Massasoit, 
found  lying  in  destitution  and  filth,   apparently  at  the 
point  of  death,  was  relieved  and  at  length  restored  to 
health  under  the  treatment  of  Winslow,  who  condescended 
to  the  most  humble  offices  of  nurse  and  cook.     In  the 
overflow  of  his  gratitude,  the  savage  revealed  the  exist- 
ence of  a  plot,  among  the  tribes  scattered  over  the  conspiracy 
country  from  Boston  Bay  to  Martha's  Vineyard,  °'"^'"^'=^"*- 
for  the  extirpation  of  the  Avhites.     The  provocation  was, 
he  said,  the  outrages  committed  by  Weston's  people  at 
W^essagusset ;    but  the  meditated  destruction   would  in- 
clude the  colonists  at  Plymouth,  because  of  the  appre- 
hension that  they  would  attempt  to   protect  or  avenge 
their  countrymen. 

The  messengers  returned  with  these  tidings  of  alarming 
import.  Other  circumstances  confirmed  the  truth  of  the 
disclosure.  In  Standish's  recent  forage  on  the  Cape,  con- 
ferences of  the  natives  there  with  Indian  visitors  from  the 
north,  and  other  significant  movements,  had  not  escaped 
his  vigilance.     A  less  circumstantial  warning,  but  from  a 


1  It  is  a  natural  feeling  tliat  lias  Dr.  Young  (Pilgrims,  314,  note)  has 
made  our  historians  desire  to  identify  suggested  other  considerations  which 
this  person  with  the  great  statesman  of  alone  would  seem  decisive  against  the 
the  civil  war.  But  such  a  supposition  supposition  of  a  visit  to  Plymouth  by 
will  not  bear  scrutiny.  John  Hamp-  the  John  Hampden  of  history, 
den  could  not  have  spared  the  time  to  Winslow's  companion  was  probably 
be  absent  from  England  at  the  critical  some  passenger  in  one  of  Weston's 
junctureof  affairs  between  King  James's  ships.  Hobbamak  was  their  guide, 
third  and  fourth  Parliaments ;  when  after-  Squanto  had  died  in  the  previous  No- 
wards  he  became  conspicuous,  our  early  vember,  while  in  attendance  on  the 
writers  could  not  have  failed  to  notice  Governor  in  his  expedition  to  Cape 
the  fact  of  a  visit  from  him,  had  it  been  Cod.  (Winslow,  Good  Newes,  18.) 
made ;  and  the  name  borne  by  the  He  had  been  a  useful  friend  to  the 
stranger  is  inconsistent  with  the  idea  of  settlers,  though  sometimes  troublesome 
an  incognito  of  the  illustrious  patriot,  and  sometimes  suspected.     (Ibid.,  8.) 


1G22. 
Marcli  27. 


202  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

trustworthy  source,  had  come  from  Boston  Bay  to  the 
settlement  during  Wmslow's  absence.^  On  his  return  to 
Plymouth,  he  found  there  an  Indian  of  Cape  Cod,  whom 
Standish  had  known  as  one  of  the  plotters  at  Manomet, 
and  who  was  now  endeavoring  to  prevail  upon  the  Captain 
to  make  another  visit  to  that  region.-  It  was  not  forgot- 
ten that  the  Indian  conspiracy  in  Virginia  had 
been  unsuspected  till  it  broke  out  in  the  mas- 
sacre of  three  hundred  and  fifty  settlers. 

The  time  for  the  "  yearly  Court  Day  "  presently  came 
round.  The  exigency  seemed  urgent.  "  The  Governor 
1C23.  communicated  the  intelligence  to  the  whole  com- 
Marchss.  p^ny,  and  asked  their  advice."  The  company  re- 
ferred the  matter  back  to  the  Governor,  the  Assistant,  and 
the  Captain.  These  consulted  among  themselves  and  with 
others,  and  concluded  that  the  preservation  of  the  settle- 
ment depended  upon  energetic  measures.  Being  guiltless 
of  injury,  they  had  no  peaceable  way  to  accommodation 
and  security ;  having  done  nothing  to  provoke  the  assault 
which  impended,  they  could  only  escape  by  anticipating 
it.  To  strike  a  blow  such  as  their  little  strength  was 
equal  to,  and  such  as  would  at  the  same  time  be  widely 
known  and  make  an  effective  impression,  Standish  was 
despatched  by  water  with  eight  men  to  the  cen- 
8i..nof  tral  point  of  discontent  at  Wessagusset.  Here 
the  plot.  ^^  found  Wituwamat,  the  emissary  who,  as 
he  believed,  had  intended  to  murder  him  at  Manomet. 
Encountering  this  savage  and  three  others,  Standish  and 
two  of  his  men  put  them  to  death,  after  a  closely  contested 
fight  without  fire-arms.     One  of  the  four  they  hanged. 

1  rhinehas   Pratt,   one  of  AVcston's  been  met  by  "  Ur.  Ilamdin  "  outside  of 

company,  had  come  to  Plymouth,  from  the   town.       He   lived   afterwards    for 

Wessaausset,  to  pive  the  alarm.      Ho  twenty-five    years    at    Plymouth,    and 

had  been  pursued  by  the  Indians,  and  then  removed  to  Massachusetts,  where, 

had  escaped  by  losin'p  his  way.     In  his  in   1CG2,  the    General    Court    granted 

"Declaration,"  &c.  (Mass.   Ilist.  Coll.,  him  three  hundred  acres  of  land. 
XXXIV.   484),    he   mentions    having         2  "Winslow,  Good  Newcs,  25  -  34,  37. 


Chap.  VI]  PLYMOUTH.  203 

Not  far  oiF  they  killed  another,  and  Weston's  men  two 
more.^  The  object  was  accomplished.  The  rest  of  the 
natives  in  terror  dispersed  into  the  woods.  A  prisoner 
made  full  confession  of  the  plot. 

Wituwamat's  head  was  brought  to  Plymouth,  and  set 
up  on  the  fort.  The  courage  of  Weston's  men  gave  out, 
and  the  settlement  was  abandoned.    Some  of  them  „. 

Dispersion 

came  to  Plymouth  with  Standish ;  the  rest,  wish-  otweston's 
ing  to  join  their  friends  at  the  Eastern  fisheries, 
received  from  him  gratuitously  for  their  voyage  all  his 
corn  except  what  sufficed  to  bring  his  own  party  home.^ 
And  "  this  was  the  end,"  so  mused  the  Plymouth  Gover- 
nor, "  of  those  that  sometime  boasted  of  their  strength, 
being  all  able,  lusty  men,  and  what  they  would  do  and 
bring  to  pass  in  comparison  of  the  people  here,  who  had 
many  women  and  children  and  weak  ones  among  them. 

But  a  man's  way  is  not  in  his  own  power.     God 

can  make  the  weak  to  stand." 

Mr.  Weston,  coming  over  soon  afterwards  for  a  better 
examination  of  his  affairs,  was  shipwrecked  between  the 
Piscataqua  and  the  Merrimack, ,  and  pillaged  by  weston  at 
the  Indians,  even  to  the  clothes  he  wore.  In  P'J"n°"^i'- 
this  plight  he  found  his  way  to  Plymouth.  They  "  pitied 
his  case,  and  remembered  former  courtesies."  Though  of 
late  he  had  been  only  an  enemy  and  a  nuisance  to  them, 
and  though,  in  their  scarcity  of  food,  they  could  ill  spare 
anything  that  was  salable,  they  supplied  him  with  a  hun- 
dred and  seventy  pounds  of  beaver  to  trade  with.  "  But 
he  requited  them  ill ;  for  he  proved  after  a  bitter  enemy 
unto  them  upon  all  occasions,  and  never  repaid  them 
anything  for  it  but  reproaches  and  evil  words."  ^  Lately 
a  prosperous  London  merchant,  he  was  now  a  ruined  man. 

1  "  Concerning  the  killing  of  those  been,  if  you  had  converted  some  before 

poor  Indians,"  wrote  Robinson  (Decern-  you  had  killed  any  !"    (Bradford,  164.) 

ber  19, 1623),  "  of  which  we  heard  first  2  Winslow,  Good  Newes,  37-47. 

by  report,  and  since  by  more  certain  3  Bradford,  132-134. 
relation,  O  how  happy  a  thing  had  it 


20 i  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

After  this  year,  he  disappears  from  the  history  of  Ply- 
mouth. 

Though  no  fatal  issue,  like  that  of  the  colony  at  Wes- 
sagussct,  had  followed  other  similar  undertakings  of  the 
same  period,  still  none  yet  gave  promise  of  prospering. 
Gorges  continued  to  be  indefatigable,  but  to  little  effect. 
The  corporation,  of  which  he  was  the  soul,  had  scarcely  re- 
perpiexities  ccivcd  Its  chartcr,  when  it  was  assailed  by  the  hos- 
cu'I^r  New  tlUty  of  tho  rival  company  of  Virginia,  the  former 
England.  propped  by  the  favor  of  the  king,  the  latter  be- 
friended by  the  patriotic  leaders  in  Parliament.  Remon- 
strances against  the  claim  of  the  Council  for  New  England 
to  a  dominion  of  its  seas  having  proved  ineffectual  with 
the  Privy  Council,  the  question  was  transferred  to  the 
House  of  Commons,  which  passed  a  bill  "  for  the 

1C21.  .  .  . 

freer  liberty  of  fishing  and  fishing  voyages  to  be 
made  and  performed  in  the  sea-coasts  and  places  of  New- 
foundland, Virginia,  New  England,  and  other  the  sea- 
coasts  and  parts  of  America."  It  was  arrested  by  the 
Lords  or  by  the  king,  and  did  not  become  a  law.^ 

When  King  James's  fifth  Parliament  was  dissolved,  and 

its  proceedings  against  the  Council  had  come  to  no  legal 

issue,  Goro^cs  took  courac^e  acrain  to  prosecute  his 

Further  at-  ^  .  n  b  I 

tenipt,iat      plaus.      Captaiu  John   Mason   "had  been   some 

coluiiization.        ,  ^  ,  .  .  -         -.-,-  p  ■. 

tmie  governor  oi  a  plantation  m  the  JNewiound- 
land."  He  had  been  previously  a  merchant  and  a  naval 
officer,  and  was  now  Treasurer  of  the  royal  navy,  and 
Governor  of  Portsmouth  in  Hampshire.  He  "  was  him- 
self a  man  of  action,"  and  well  qualified  for  the  vigorous 
co-operation  with  Gorges  in  which  he  now  became  en- 
1G22  g^D^'^-  ^^^  obtained  from  the  Council  a  grant  of 
March  9.  ^\^q  lauds  lylug  between  the  little  river  which 
discharges  its  waters  at  Naumkeag,  now  Salem,  and  the 

1  Gk)ro:eR,  Brief  Narration,  in  Mass.     Journal  of  the  Commons,  I.  591,  592, 
Hist.  Coll.,  XXVI.  65,  6G.  —  Chalmers,     602,  654. 
Political  Annals,  83,  84,  100-102.— 


Chap.  VI.]  PLYMOUTH.  205 

river  Merrimack,  To  this  tract,  extending  inland  to  the 
sources  of  those  streams,  he  gave  the  name  of  Mariana. 
In  the  same  year  the  Council  j^ranted  to  Gor^res 

•'  ®  °  .         Aug.  10. 

and  Mason  the  country  bounded  by  the  Merri- 
mack, the  Kennebec,  the  ocean,  and  "  the  river  of  Can- 
ada "  ;  and  this  territory  they  called  Laconia.     Sir  Wil- 
liam Alexander,  by   Mason's   intervention  with   Gorges, 
had  obtained  from  the  Council  a  patent  for  Nova      iggi. 
Scotia,  or  New  Scotland,  afterwards  confirmed  by  ^"ptember. 
a  grant  from   the  king  under  the  seal  of  his  northern 
kingdom.      But    attempts    in   this    quarter    amounted   at 
present  to  no  more  than  a  hasty  visit  of  two  vessels  to  the 
coast.^     Saco,  a  few  miles  up  the  river  of  that  name,  and 
Agamenticus,  afterwards  York,"  may  have  received  their 
first  English  inhabitants,  under  the  auspices  of  Gorges, 
within  three  or  four  years  after  the  plantation  at  Ply- 
mouth.    In  the   service  of  Gorges,   Mason,   and  others, 
a  small  party,  some  from  the  parent  country,  some  re- 
cently arrived  at  the  American  Plymouth,  attempted  set- 
tlements on  the  Piscataqua.     David  Thompson,  a 
Scotchman,  was  in  charge  of  the  company  at  the 
mouth  of  that  river,  where  is  now  Portsmouth ;  William 
and  Edward  Hilton,  "fishmongers  of  London,"  were,  with 
others,  higher  up  the  stream,  at  Cochecho,  now  Dover.    But 
all  these  undertakings  languished  for  a  long  time  after. 
What  was  soon  to  become  a  permanent  planta- 

^  ^  1625. 

tion,  at  Monhegan,  was  as  yet  only  a  rendezvous 
for  fishermen  and  traders ;  ^  and  the  settlement  at  Pema- 
quid,  twelve  or  fifteen  miles  from  it,  on  the  mainland,  was 
undertaken  two  years  later  than  those  on  the  Piscataqua. 

1  Gorges,  Briefe  Narration,  Chap,  an  inhabitant  of  this  place  [Agamenti- 
XVII.  -  XXIV.  cus],  the  first  that  ever  built  or  settled 

2  Ibid.,  Chap.  XXV.  —  Belknap,  there."  (See  Maine  Hist.  Coll.,  I.  295.) 
American  Biography,  I.  377,  378.  —  And  nothing  is  certain  as  to  Saco  be- 
Williamson,  I.  227,  231. — But  Edward  fore  1630,  except  the  residence  of  Vines 
Grodfrey,  in  a  petition,  in  1654,  to  the  in  its  vicinity,  about  1617.  See  above, 
General  Court  of  Massachusetts,  says  p.  98. 

that  he  had  been  "twenty-four  years        3  gee  above,  pp.  93,  176. 
VOL.  I.  18 


206  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

Captain  Eobert  Gorges,  son  of  Sir  Fcrdinando,  with 
"  sundry  passengers  and  families,"  revived  the  attempt  to 

1C23.  plant  a  colony  at  Wessagusset.^  Captain  Gorges 
Pr^rr't  for"'  ^^^^  been  appointed  by  the  Council  for  New  Eng- 
a  general       Jand  "  Gcucral  Governor  of  the  country,"  to  be 

government.  .  .  .^  .       .  n  -r^  •      -i-rr 

assisted  by  a  council,  consisting  of  Francis  u  est, 
Christopher  Levett,  the  Governor  of  Plymouth  for  the 
time  being,  and  such  others  as  the  General  Governor 
should  appoint.  Captain  Gorges  and  his  assistants,  or 
any  three  of  them,  he  being  one,  were  "  to  do  and  execute 
what  to  them  should  seem  good,  in  all  cases,  capital,  crim- 
inal, and  civil."  An  Episcopal  clergyman,  named  Morrell, 
came  with  them,  invested  with  an  ecclesiastical  authority, 
which  he  found  no  opportunity  to  exercise.  AYhile  the 
object  of  this  movement  was  to  secure  to  the  patentees  the 
monopoly  of  the  New-England  territory  and  waters,  it 
had  for  its  ostensible  purpose  to  correct  "  the  abuses  com- 
mitted by  several  the  fishermen  and  other  interlopers, 
who,  without  order  from  them,  frequented  these  coasts, 

tending  to  the  scorn  of  our  nation, to  the  overthrow 

of  our  trade,  and  dishonor  of  the  government."" 

Levett,  who  appears  to  have  come  over  before  Gorges, 
made  some  examination  of  the  country  cast  of  the  Piscata- 
qua,  and  on  his  return  published  a  journal  of  his  voyage.^ 

1  'riie  patent  of  Robert  Gorges  did  rived  from  it,  and  gives  direetions  for 
not  inehide  "Wcssagusset.  (Sec  Hazard,  the  conduct  of  the  emigrant.  "  I  was 
I.  152.)  His  territory  extended  ten  never  at  the  Massachusett,  which  is 
miles  "  upon  the  northeast  side  of  the  counted  the  paradise  of  New  Enghmd, 
bay  " ;  that  is,  from  Charles  River  to  nor  at  Cape  Ann,  but  I  fear  there  hath 
Nahant.  been  too  fair  a  gloss  set  upon  Cape 

2  Gorges,  Briefe  Narration,  Chap.  Ann."  "  Neither  was  I  at  New  Ply- 
XXIII.  —  Bradford,  149.  mouth,  but  I  fear  that  place  is  not  so 

3  This  is  reprinted  in  the  IMass.  Ilist.  good  as  many  others."  "Neither  was 
Coll.,  XXVIII.  1.59.  It  is  made  up  of  I  ever  farther  to  the  west  than  the  Isle  of 
observations  on  the  country,  its  ad-  Shoal.s."  (Il)id.,180,181.)  "Imustcon- 
vantages  for  agriculture,  trade,  and  fish-  fess,"hesays(Ibid.,185),"Ihave studied 
ing,  and  its  climate,  soil,  productions,  no  art,  a  long  time,  but  the  mysteries  of 
and  inhabitants.  It  answers  objections  New-England  trade,"  —  a  hint  which 
to  emigration  from  England,  shows  the  perhaps  justifies  what  is  said  in  the  text 
benefits,  private  and  public,  to  be  de-  of  the  object  of  his  being  placed  on  the 


Cii.vp.  VI.]  PLYMOUTH.  207 

The  work  shows  that  he  was  at  once  a  man  of  sense  and 
a  man  of  business,  and  that  the  particular  trust  committed 
to  him  by  the  Council  was  to  ascertain  the  encourage- 
ments which  the  country  offered  for  colonization.  Captain 
Gorges  came  to  Plymouth  and  passed  a  fortnight.  Here 
he  met  Weston,  whom  he  called  severely  to  account  on 
two  charges.  One  was  for  the  misconduct  of  his  men  at 
Wessagusset ;  the  other,  "  for  an  abuse  done  to  his  father. 
Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges,  and  to  the  state;  the  thing  was 
this :  He  used  him  and  others  of  the  Council  of  New  Eng- 
land to  procure  him  a  license  for  the  transporting  of  many 
pieces  of  great  ordnance  for  New  England,  pretending 
great  fortification  in  that  country ;  the  which  when  he 
had  obtained,  he  went  and  sold  them  beyond  seas  for  his 
private  profit;  for  which  (he  said)  the  state  was  much 
ofiended,  and  his  father  suffered  a  shrewd  check."  ^  Wes- 
ton, who  was  a  rogue,  was  by  turns  abject  and  insolent. 
Gorges  was  pacified  by  Bradford's  mediation.  Weston 
went  to  Virginia,  and  thence  to  England.  Gorges  set  off 
by  land  on  an  exploration  to  the  North,  sending  his  ves- 
sel to  Virginia  with  passengers,  part  of  whom  she  had 
brought  from  Europe,  while  a  few  were  of  those  who  had 
earlier  arrived  at  Plymouth.^ 

commission.  He  is  angry  "with  somebody  2  Bradford,  149-153.  —  In  the  first 
whom  he  does  not  name  (Ibid.,  172).  I  of  the  fragments  wliich  remain  of  the 
think  it  was  not  Weston  (comp.  182). —  Journal  of  the  Council  for  New  Eng- 
Samoset,  the  first  Indian  friend  of  the  land  (see  above,  pp.  192,  193,  note)  are 
Plymouth  people,  reappears  in  Levett's  the  following  minutes  :  — 
Journal.  At  a  place,  which  he  calls  "  Petition  to  be  made  to  the  king  for 
Capemamcagan,  near  the  Kennebec,  forfeiture  of  the  ships  and  goods  of  Mr. 
he  fell  in  with  "  Somerset,  a  sagamore,  Weston."  This  was  in  May,  1622, 
one  that  hath  been  found  very  faithful  "  It  is  thought  fit  that  there  shall  be 
to  the  English,  and  hath  saved  the  an  order  procured  from  the  Lords  of 
lives  of  many."  (Ibid.,  170.)  his  Majesty's  Council  for  sending  for 
1  Perhaps  this  is  what  is  indicated  in  such  as  have,  in  contempt  of  authority, 
the  following  entry  in  the  Journal  of  the  gone  for  New  England  this  last  year, 
Privy  Council  for  February  17,  1622:  as  also  to  procure  a  further  warning  to 
"  License  to  Thomas  Weston  to  send  be  given  to  them  from  further  attempt- 
munitions  and  ordnance  by  the  Char-  ing,  by  proclamation."  Accordingly, 
ity."  there   was   issued   an   "  Order   to   the 


208 


HISTORY   OF  KEW   ENGLAND. 


[Book  I. 


West,  with  a  commission  as  "  Admiral  of  New  Eng- 
land," M'as  to  "restrain  such  ships  as  came  to  fish  and  trade 
without  license  from  the  Council  for  New  England."  Tliis 
proved  to  be  beyond  his  power.     The  fishermen  eluded 


Attorney-General,  on  a  petition  of  tlie 
Council  for  New  England,  to  i)repare  a 
proclamation  for  his  INIajesty's  signature, 
prohibiting  all  persons  to  resort  unto 
the  coasts  of  New  England,  contrary  to 
his  Majesty's  said  royal  grant."  (Jour- 
nal of  the  Privy  Council  for  October 
23,  1G22.) 

"  The  patents  already  granted  to  be 
confirmed,  and  order  is  given  for  patents 
to  be  drawn  for  the  Earl  of  Warwick 
and  his  associates,  the  Lord  Gorges,  Sir 
Robert  INIansell,  Sir  Ferdinando  Gor- 
ges." This,  I  conceive  there  is  no  doubt, 
relates  to  a  partition  to  be  mentioned 
hereafter.     (Sec  below,  pp.  222,  285.) 

"  As  touching  the  Governor,  Sir  Fer- 
dinando Gorges  is  elected.  The  par- 
ticulars are  reserved  till  another  meet- 
ing." 

Tlie  following  entries  are  under  their 
respective  dates :  — 

"Nov.  8  [1C22].  Captain  Francis 
"West  to  go  to  New  England  as  Admiral 
for  that  coast. 

"It  is  agreed  that  a  commission  be 
granted  unto  Arthur  Champernowne, 
Esq.,  for  the  sending  out  of  a  ship  called 

the  Chudley,  of  the  burden  of tons, 

to  fish  in  New  England  this  year."  This 
shows  the  strictness  of  the  monopoly 
asserted. 

Jan.  21,  1G23.  "Forasmuch  as  it 
was  now  propounded  that  a  strength 
must  be  settled  in  New  England,"  it 
was  determined  that  "  there  ought  to 
be  three  sorts  of  men  ; —  1.  gentlemen, 
to  bear  arms  and  attend  upon  the  Gov- 
ernor; 2.  handicraftsmen  of  all  sorts; 
3.  husbandmen,  for  the  tilling  and  ma- 
nuring of  the  lands;  —  these  to  be  em- 
ployed by  the  public,  and  accounts  to 
be  taken  of  them  every  week."    Gorges 


was  present  at  the  meeting,  and  this 
looks  like  a  scheme  from  the  Gorges 
mint. 

"  ]\Iay  31.  It  is  thought  convenient 
to  admit  young  youths  from  jjarishes, 
that  have  not  been  tainted  with  any 
villany  or  misdemeanor,  to  be  sent  to 
New  England,  and  there  to  be  placed 
out  and  bound  apprentices  to  such  as 
shall  have  occasion  and  means  to  cm- 
])loy  them." 

"  July  24.  The  country  to  be  called 
Nova  Albion." 

"  Aug.  6.  Forasmuch  as  it  hath  been 
ordered  by  the  Lords  of  his  JMajesty's 
Privy  Council  that  the  patent  for  New 
England  shall  be  renewed,  as  well  for 
the  amendment  of  some  things  therein 
contained,  as  for  the  necessary  supply 
of  what  is  found  defective,"  &c.  I  can 
find  nothing  satisfactory  respecting  this 
abortive  scheme.  Perhaps  it  was  but  a 
pretence  of  the  Council  and  the  cour- 
tiers, to  pacify  the  existing  clamor.  A 
record  of  earlier  date  (March  11, 1G23) 
must,  I  presume,  be  understood  with  a 
similar  reference.  "  Touching  the  gov- 
ernment of  these  territories  by  the  pres- 
ent patent,  it  is  limited  to  be  '  as  near  as 
may  be  to  the  laws  of  England.'  For 
many  reasons  it  is  propounded  that 
those  words  may  be  omitted  in  the  new 
patent."  Sir  Henry  Spclman  was  the 
Council's  legal  adviser.  —  In  the  "  Brief 
Relation  "  of  the  President  and  Council 
of  New  England,  published  in  1622,  the 
same  plan  is  probably  referred  to  (18, 
20),  where  they  speak  of  "  our  patent 
which  we  were  by  order  of  state  as- 
signed to  renew,  for  the  amendment 
of  some  defects  therein  contained." 
(Comp.  Gorges,  Briefe  Narration,  Chap. 

xvm.) 


Chap.  VL]  PLYMOUTH.  209 

him  till  Parliament  had  time  again  to  interfere.     In  the 
House  of  Commons,  Sir  Edward  Coke,  for  the  Committee 
on  Grievances,  reported  against  the  claim  of  the     1C04. 
patentees,   "  for  the  clause  that  none  shall  visit  „  ^^"y- 

i-  '  Proceedings 

with  fishins:  upon  the  sea-coast."  "  This,"  he  ar-  '"  Piriia- 
gued,  IS  "  to  make  a  monopoly  upon  the  sea,  which 
wont  to  be  free,  a  monopoly  attempted  of  the  wind  and 
the  sun  by  the  sole  packing  and  drying  of  fish."  Gorges 
was  heard,  at  three  different  times,  by  himself  and  by  coun- 
sel. The  result  was,  that,  in  a  list  of  "  public  grievances  of 
the  kingdom,  that  of  the  patent  for  New  England  was  the 
first."  ^  No  further  prosecution  took  place.  But  Gorges 
"  thought  better  to  forbear  for  the  present,  in  honor  and  re- 
spect of  what  had  passed  in  so  public  a  manner  between 
the  king  and  his  House  of  Commons  "  ;  the  rather,  because 
"  this  public  declaration  of  the  House's  dislike  of  the  cause 
shook  .oif  all  the  adventurers  for  plantation,  and  made 
many  of  the  patentees  to  quit  their  interest."  Robert 
Gorges,  "  not  finding  the  state  of  things  to  answer  his 
quality,"  returned  to  England  with  some  of  his  compan- 
ions. Morrell  and  others,  who  remained,  were  assisted 
with  supplies  from  Plymouth.  At  length  Morrell  was 
discouraged,  and  a  second  time  the  scheme  of  a  considera- 
ble settlement  at  Wessagusset  was  abandoned,^  though 
a  few  persons  remained,  and  before  long  were  joined  by 
others,  till  a  permanent  community  was  formed. 

Yet  another  occasion  for  anxiety  on  the  part  of  the 
Plymouth  settlers  had  arisen  from  the  bad  faith  of  Pierce, 
to  whom  the  grant  of  land  had  been  made  for  the  benefit 
of  the  Adventurers.  Becoming  satisfied  of  the  auspicious 
prospects  of  the  plantation,  he  conceived  the  Danger  of 
scheme  of  securing  it  for  his  private  advantage,  patent!"'""^'* 
and  contrived  to  supersede  the  patent  by  another  1692, 
which  he  obtained   from  the  Council  for  New     ""^ 

1  Parliamentary  History,  I.  1490. —         2  Bradford,  154. — Morrell  described 

Gorges,   Briefe   Narration,  &c.,  Chap,  the  country  in  a  Latin  and  an  English 

Xvill.  -XXI.  poem  (Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  I.  12G). 
18* 


210 


HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 


[Book  I. 


Oct.  IG. 


England,  with  provisions  which,  as  the  settlers  construed 
them,  would  "  hold  them  as  his  tenants,  and  to  sue  to  his 
courts  as  chief  lord."^  Pierce  sailed  for  Plymouth, 
but  by  tempestuous  weather  was  twice  driven  back 
with  heavy  loss.  Informed  of  the  fraud  which  had  been 
practised,  the  Adventurers  made  a  complaint.  The  ques- 
tion was  considered  at  different  meetings  of  the  Council ; 
and  the  issue  was,  that  Pierce's  new  patent  was  cancelled, 
and  the  Adventurers  were  reinstated  in  their  rights.^ 


1  Bradford,  139  ;  see  above,  p.  193. 

2  Following  Morton  (Memorial,  pp. 
95  -  97)  and  Prince  (I.  136),  recent  his- 
torians have  said  that  the  Adventurers 
bought  Pierce's  patent  for  five  hundred 
pounds.  But  this,  I  suppose,  was  but  a 
hasty  interpretation  of  language  in  a 
letter  from  one  of  the  Adventurers, 
who  (Bradford,  140)  speaks  of  Pierce's 
"  unwillingness  to  part  with  his  royal 
lordship,  and  the  high  rate  he  set  it  at, 
which  was  £  500."  Though  this  was 
what  he  began  with  asking,  I  have  seen 
no  proof  that  he  ever  got  it.  The  follow- 
ing extracts  from  the  manuscript  Jour- 
nal of  the  Council  for  New  England 
perhaps  tell  the  whole  story,  as  far  as 
it  can  be  now  recovered  :  — 

"18  May,  1G23.  Touching  the  pe- 
tition exhibited  to  the  Council  by  the 
Adventurers  of  New  Plymouth  in  New 
England  against  Mr.  John  Pierce,  the 
patentee  with  whom  they  are  associates, 
Mr.  Pierce  and  the  associates  met  and 
made  several  projiositions  each  to  other, 
but  agreed  not.  "WHiereupon  they  were 
appointed  to  give  meeting  each  to  other, 
and  then  certify  the  Council  Avhat  they 
concluded  on,  that  then  such  further 
course  might  bo  taken  as  should  be 
meet." 

"Tuesday,  25  May.  Present,  Sir 
Ferdinando  Gorges,  Sir  Samuel  Argal, 
Sir  Henry  Sijclman  =  ]\Ir.  Jo.  Pierce 
and  his  a.s.sociates.  After  a  long  dis- 
cussion of  the  difference  between  !Mr. 
Jo.  Pierce  and  his  associates,  it  appeared 


that  Mr.  Jo.  Pierce  obtained  from  the 
Council  an  indenture  purporting  a  grant 
of  certain  lands  in  New  England  ibr 
the  settling  of  a  plantation  there,  dated 
the  first  day  of  June,  1C21. 

"  It  further  appeared,  that  upon  the 
20th  day  of  April,  1C22,  Mr.  Pierce 
granted  letters  of  association  unto  the 
said  Adventurers,  whereby  he  made 
them  jointly  interested  with  lym  in  the 
lands  granted  by  the  abovesaid  inden- 
ture. 

"  ]\Ioreovcr  it  appeared  that  upon  the 
said  20th  day  of  April,  1C22,  after  the 
said  ]\Ir.  Pierce  had  interested  the  said 
Adventurers  in  the  lands  passed  unto 
him  by  the  said  indenture,  that  he 
yielded  and  surrendered  up  the  said 
indenture,  and  received  the  counterpart 
thereof,  and  took  a  patent  or  deed-pole 
of  the  said  lands  to  himself,  his  heirs, 
associates,  and  assigns  for  ever,  having 
date  the  said  20th  of  April,  1622,  with 
which  surrender  and  new  grant  the 
Adventurers  affirmed  that  they  were 
not  privy  unto,  and  therefore  conceived 
they  were  deceived  by  Mr.  Pierce, 
which  was  the  cause  of  their  complaint. 
At  length,  by  the  mutual  consent  of 
]\Ir.  Pierce  and  the  said  Adventurers,  it 
was  ordered  as  followeth  :  — 

"  AVhcreas  there  were  several  differ- 
ences between  John  Pierce,  citizen  and 
clothworkcr  of  London,  and  the  Treas- 
urer and  other  the  associates  of  him  the 
said  John  Pierce  that  were  undertaken 
with  him  for  the  settUng  and  advance- 


Chap.  VI.]  .  PLYMOUTH.  211 

Meanwhile  the  distress  from  scarcity  of  food  had  con- 
tinued at  Plymouth.     When  the  settlers  had  planted  in 
the  third  spring,  "all  their  victuals  were  spent, 
and  they  were  only  to  rest  on  God's  providence,  continued 

.     T  •I'll  scarcity. 

at  night  not  many  times  knowing  where  to  have 

a  bit  of  anything  the  next  day Yet  they  bore  these 

wants  with  great  patience  and  alacrity  of  spirit 

Some  time,  two  or  three  months  together,  they  neither 

had  bread  nor  any  kind  of  corn They  were  divided 

into  several  companies,  six  or  seven  to  a  gang  or  com- 
pany, and  so  went  out  with  a  net  they  had  bought,  to  take 
bass  and  such  like  fish,  by  course,  every  company  knowing 

their  turn Neither  did  they  return  till  they  had 

caught  something,  though  it  were  five  or  six  days  before, 
for  they  knew  there  was  nothing  at  home,  and  to  go  home 
empty  would  be  a  great  discouragement  to  the  rest.  Yea, 
they  strove  who  should  do  best.  If  the  boat  stayed  long 
or  got  little,  then  all  went  to  seeking  of  shell-fish,  which  at 

low  water  they  digged  out  of  the  sands Also  in  the 

summer  they  got  now  and  then  a  deer ;  for  one  or  two  of 
the  fittest  was  appointed  to  range  the  woods  for  that  end, 
and  what  was  got  that  way  was  divided  amongst  them."^ 
When  a  second  party  of  recruits  joined  them,  "  the  best 
dish  they  could  present  them  with  was  a  lobster,  or  a  piece 
of  fish,  without  bread,  or  anything  else  but  a  cup  of  fair 
spring  water.  "^ 

This  new  reinforcement  came  in  the  Ann  and  the  Little 

ment  of  the  plantation  at  Plymouth,  in  continue  tenants  unto  tlie  Council  es- 

the  parts  of  New  England,  said  difFei'-  tablished  for  the  managing  of  the  afore- 

ences,  after  the  full  hearing  and  debat-  said  affairs  of  New  England,  notwith- 

ing  thereof  before  us,  were  finally  con-  standing  a  grant,  bearing  date  the  20th 

eluded  upon  by  the  offer  of  the  said  of  April,  1622,  by  said  Pierce  obtained 

John  Pierce  and  mutual  adoption  of  the  without  the  consent  of  the  said  asso- 

said  Treasurer  and  Company  then  pres-  ciates,  from  the  said  Council,  contrary 

ent,   in  behalf  of  themselves  and  the  to  a  former  grant  to  the  said  Pierce 

rest  of  the  said  Company,  that  the  said  made  in  behalf  of  himself  and  his  said 

associates  with  their  undertakers  and  associates,  dated  the  1st  of  June,  1G21." 
servants  now  settled  or  to  be  settled  in         ^  Bradford,  13G,  137. 
Plymouth  aforesaid  should  remain  and        2  Ibid.,  1-16. 


212  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

James,  the  latter  of  which  vessels,  of  forty-four  tons'  bur- 
August,    ^en,  was  "built  to  stay  in  the  country."     The 
Arrival  of      Qarlier  settlers,  Avith  those  who  had  now  arrived, 

the  Aim  '  ' 

and  tiio        were  afterwards  distinguished  from  later  emigrants 

Littlo  James.    ,,.,  f      t  i  t     />         />      i  n 

by  the  titles  or  old-comers  and  forefathers.  "  oome 
few  of  your  old  friends,"  wrote  Cushman  at  this  time, 
"  are  come ;  they  come  dropping  to  you,  and  by  degrees 
I  hope  erelong  you  shall  enjoy  them  all."  And  a  com- 
mercial partnership  Imd  a  glimpse  of  the  immortal  renown 
to  which  its  humble  agents  were  destined :  "  Let  it  not 
be  grievous  to  you,"  wrote  the  Adventurers,  "  that  you 
have  been  instruments  to  break  the  ice  for  others  who 
come  after  with  less  difficulty ;  the  honor  shall  be  yours 
to  the  world's  end;  we  bear  you  always  in  our  breasts, 
and  our  hearty  affection  is  towards  you  all,  as  are  the 
hearts  of  hundreds  more  which  never  saw  your  faces, 
who  doubtless  pray  for  your  safety  as  their  own,  that  the 
same  God  which  hath  so  marvellously  preserved  you  from 
seas,  foes,  and  famine,  will  still  preserve  you  from  all 
future  dangers,  and  make  you  honorable  among  men,  and 
glorious  in  bliss  at  the  last  day."  -^ 

A  few  of  the  passengers  in  the  two  vessels  now  arrived 
had  come  at  their  own  charge,  and  free  to  seek  their  own 

employments,  "  yet  to  be  subject  to  the  general 

New  descnp-  i.        .1  ■>  j  u  o 

tionofset-  government."  The  rest,  about  sixty  in  number, 
were  "for  the  general,"  that  is,  under  contract 
with  the  Adventurers.  The  settlement  was  not  to  be 
immediately  relieved  from  its  mixed  character;  some  of 
the  recently  arrived  were  "  very  useful  persons,  and  be- 
came good  members  to   the  body ;    and   some  were  the 

1  Bradford,  115,  146.      Among  the  anotlior  the  wife  of  Standish.      Alice 

persons   who  camo   at  this  time  were  Southwortli,  Bradford's  second  wife,  is 

Cuthbertson,  a  member  of  the  Leydea  said  to  have  been  his  first  love.     Both 

church,  the  wives  of  Fuller  and  Cooke,  being  widowed,  a  correspondence  took 

and  two  daughters  of  Brewster.    There  place,  in  the  sequel  of  which  she  came 

were  at  least  twelve  females.     One  of  out  from  England,  and  married  him  at 

them  became  the  wife  of  Bradford,  and  Blymouth. 


Chap.  VI.]  PLYMOUTH.  213 

wives  and  children  of  such  as  were  here  already ;  and 
some  were  so  bad  as  they  were  fain  to  be  at  charge  to 
send  them  home  again  the  next  year."  The  arrival  of 
persons  who  came  "  on  their  particular,"  as  it  was  called, 
introduced  into  the  society  a  new  element,  which  before 
long  "  caused  some  difficulty  and  disturbance."  The  colo- 
nists received  them  on  an  agreement  consisting  of  four 
articles,  namely:  —  1.  "That  they,  on  their  parts,  be  subject 
to  all  such  laws  and  orders  as  are  already  made,  or  hereafter 
shall  be,  for  the  public  good";  2.  "That  they  be  freed  and  . 
exempt  from  the  general  employments  of  the  company, 
except  common  defence,  and  such  other  employments  as 
tend  to  the  perpetual  good  of  the  colony  " ;  3.  That,  for 
every  male  above  sixteen  years  old,  they  should  make  an 
annual  contribution  of  a  bushel  of  Indian  corn,  or  its 
value,  towards  the  maintenance  of  the  Governor  and  other 
public  officers ;  4.  That,  till  the  expiration  of  the  partner- 
ship between  the  Colony  and  the  Adventurers,  they  should 
abstain  from  traffic  with  the  natives  for  furs  and  other 
commodities.^ 

Another  year  was  now  drawing  to  a  close,  and  the 
first  terrible  hardships  of  the  enterprise  were  over.  "  By 
this  time  harvest  was  come,  and  instead  of  fam-  pig^j^^^,  ^^^^ 
ine,  now  God  grave  them  plenty,  and  the  face  oiy<^^io{uw 
things  was  changed  to  the  rejoicing  of  the  hearts 
of  many ;  and  the  effect  of  their  particular  planting  was 
well  seen,  for  all  had,  one  way  and  other,  pretty  well  to 
bring  the  year  about,  and  some  of  the  abler  sort  and  more 
industrious  had  to  spare,  and  sell  to  others,  so  as  any  gen- 
eral want  or  famine  hath  not  been  amongst  them  since  to 
this  day."  ^  Thus  it  was  that  the  Governor,  looking  back 
to  this  autumn  from  later  times,  recorded  the  altered  pros- 


1  Bradford,  143,  147, 148.    Cushman  -without  my  consent,  but  the  importu- 

alluded  in  his  letter  to  the  mixed  char-  nity  of  their  friends  got  promise  of  our 

aoter  of  the  party  (Ibid.,  143),  and  Treasurer  in  my  absence." 

specified  persons,  who,  he  said,  "came  ^  Ibid.,  147. 


214  HISTORY  OF  KEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

pect.  This  year  was  the  first  hi  which  a  stimulus  of  indi- 
vidual interest  had  quickened  the  activity  of  toil.  To 
each  family,  in  place  of  the  partnership  labor  hitherto 
maintained,  had  been  assigned  in  the  spring  the  cultiva- 
tion and  profit  of  a  separate  parcel  of  land,  the  single 
persons  being  each  attached  to  some  family,  and  a  provision 
being  added,  that  each  cultivator  should  at  harvest  "  bring 
in  a  competent  portion  for  the  maintenance  of  public  offi- 
cers, fishermen,  &c."  The  plan  "  had  very  good  success, 
for  it  made  all  hands  very  industrious,  so  as  much  more 
corn  was  planted  than  otherwise  would  have  been ;  and  it 
gave  far  better  content.  The  women  now  went  willingly 
into  the  field  and  took  their  little  ones  with  them  to  set 
corn,  whom  to  have  compelled  would  have  been  thought 
great  tyranny  and  oppression."-^ 

A  drought  had  followed  the  planting  season,  and  con- 
tinued with  severity  till  the  middle  of  summer.     "  The 
most  courageous  were  now  discouraged."     It  was  resolved 
to  set  apart  a  day  "  to  humble  themselves  together 
before  the  Lord  by  fasting  and  prayer."     The  re- 
ligious services  lasted  "  some  eight  or  nine  hours."    When 
they  began,  "  the  heavens  were  as  clear  and  the  drought 
as  like  to  continue  as  ever."     Before  they  closed,  the  sky 
was  overcast.     The  rain  began  to  fall,   as  the  thankful 
worshippers  withdrew,  and  for  fourteen  days  there  fell 
"  such  soft,  sweet,  and  moderate  showers  as  it  was  hard  to 
say  whether  their  withered  corn  or  drooping  affections 
were  most  quickened  or  revived."-    In  the  autumn,  by  the 
carelessness  of  "  some  of  the  seamen  that  were  roystering 
in  a  house,"  or,  as  was  suspected,  by  the  design  of  some 
mischievous  person  among  those  recently  arrived,  a  fire 
broke    out    "  right    against    their    storehouse,    in    which 
were  their  common  store  and  all  their  provisions, 
the  which  if  it   had   been  lost,   the   plantation 

1  Bradford,  134-13G,  151.— Wius-         2  Winslow,  Good  Newes,  49,  50. 
low,  Good  Ncwes,  47. 


Chap.  VI.]  PLYMOUTH.  215 

had  been  overthro^ATi."  But  by  great  exertions  it  was 
saved;  and  no  want  was  felt  during  the  winter,  though 
three  or  four  houses  had  been  consumed,  and  all  the  goods 
and  provisions  in  them,  to  the  value  of  five  hundred 
pounds.^  In  the  preservation  of  the  magazine,  as  well  as 
in  the  seasonable  showers,  was  confidently  recognized  the 
intervention  of  a  special  providence. 

Bradford,  who  had  been  chosen  Governor  at  the  begin- 
ning of  each  year,  and  who  would  have  declined  a  fourth 
election,  was  prevailed  on  to  accept  the  charge,     1004. 
with  a  council  of  five  Assistants,  instead  of  one    ^^'"'''''' 
as  heretofore.     He  had  correctly  estimated  the  favorable 
operation  of  the  division  of  labor  introduced  the  preceding 
year;   and  the  plan  was  now  extended  so  as  to  Allotments 
allot  to  each  householder  an  acre  of  land  near  ""*"''• 
the  town,  to  be  held  in  severalty  till  the  expiration  of  the 
seven  years'  partnership  with  the  Adventurers.    The  quan- 
tity of  land  thus  distributed  was  small,  to  the  end  "  that 
they  might  be  kept  close  together,  both  for  more  safety 
and  defence."" 

Winslow,  who  had  gone  in  the  Ann  to  England  to 
make  a  personal  report  to  the  Adventurers  and  procure 
supplies,  returned  in  the  Charity  after  an  absence  Amvaiof 
of  eight   months.      "  He  brought  three  heifers  from^Eil^. 
and  a  bull,  the  first  beginning  of  any  cattle  of  '''"'^• 
that  kind  in  the  land,  with  some  clothing  and  other  neces- 
saries."     He   also  brought   a  carpenter   to  build    "  two 
ketches,  a  lighter,  and  some  six  or  seven  shallops,"  who 
died  soon,  but  not  till  he  had  rendered  himself  very  use- 
ful ;  a  "  salt-man,"  who  proved  "  an  ignorant,  foolish,  self- 
willed   fellow,"   and  only  made  trouble  and  waste;    and 
"  a  preacher,  though  none  of  the  most  eminent  and  rare," 
to  whose  transportation  Cushman  wrote  that  he  and  "Wins- 
low  consented  only  "  to  give  content  to  some  in  London." 
With  Winslow  came  a  sad  "  report  of  a  strong  faction 

1  Bradford,  151,  152.  2  aid.,  1G7,  1G8. 


216  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

among  the  Adventurers  against  the  planters,  and  especially 
against  the  coming  of  the  rest  from  Leyden."^ 

It  has  not  escaped  the  reader's  attention,  that  the  Lon- 
don Adventurers  were  engaged  in  a  commercial  specula- 
tion.    Several  of  them  sympathized  more  or  less 

Faction  ^  ^  .  . 

among  the     in  rcligious  sentiment  with  Robinson's  followers  ; 

Adventurers.  .  r*      i  •  i 

but  even  with  most  oi  those  persons  considera- 
tions of  pecuniary  interest  were  paramount,  and  they  were 
also  a  minority  when  opposed  to  the  aggregate  of  those 
who  favored  the  English  Church  and  those  who  had  no 
mind  to  interest  themselves  in  rcligious  questions  to  the 
damage  of  their  prospect  of  gain.  Under  such  circum- 
stances, the  policy  of  the  English  partners  would  be  to 
keep  in  favor  with  the  court  and  with  the  Council  for 
New  England,  in  which  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges  and  other 
Churchmen  were  leaders.  Here  we  see  an  occasion  for 
the  embarrassments  which  were  interposed  to  frustrate 
Robinson's  wish  to  collect  his  scattered  flock  in  America. 
Neither  the  Virginia  Company,  nor  the  London  Adven- 
turers as  a  body,  —  nor,  especially,  the  Council  for  New 
England,  —  would  have  preferred  to  employ  Separatists  in 
founding  a  colony,  and  giving  value  to  their  land.  But 
the  option  was  not  theirs.  At  the  moment,  no  other 
description  of  persons  was  disposed  to  confront  the  an- 
ticipated hardships,  and  none  could  be  relied  upon  like 
them  to  carry  the  business  through.  This  was  well  un- 
derstood on  both  sides  to  be  the  motive  for  the  engage- 
ment that  was  made.^ 

If  Separatists  were   perforce  to  undertake  the  enter- 

1  Bradford,  158,  160,  1G7.  tion  "whereof  we  make  great  conscience." 

2  "  We  are  well  weaned  from  the  "  It  is  not  with  us  as  with  other  men, 
delicate  milk  of  our  mother  country,  whom  small  things  can  discourage,  or 
and  inured  to  the  difficulties  of  a  small  discontentments  cause  to  wish 
strange  and  hard  land,  which  yet  in  a  themselves  at  home  again."  (Letter  of 
great  part  we  have  by  patience  over-  llobinson  and  Brewster  to  Sir  Edwin 
come."  "We  are  knit  together  as  a  Sandys,  December  15,  1617,  in  Brad- 
body  in  a  most  strict  and  sacred  bond  ford,  31,  33.) 

and  covenant  of  the  Lord,  of  the  viola- 


Chap.  VI.]  PLYMOUTH.  217 

prise,  it  was  desirable  that  they  should  be  persons  not 
individually  conspicuous,  or  obnoxious  to  displeasure  in 
high  quarters;  and  when  Brewster,  and  not  E.obinson, 
accompanied  the  emigrants  to  America,  it  was  a  result,  if 
not  due  to  any  arrangement  of  the  Adventurers,  certainly 
well  according  with  their  policy.  Brewster  was  forgotten 
in  England;  nor  had  he  ever  been  known  as  a  literary 
champion  of  his  sect.  The  able  and  learned  Robinson 
was  the  recognized  head  of  the  English  Independents.  He 
had  an  English,  if  indeed  it  may  not  be  called  a  European, 
reputation.  No  name  could  have  been  uttered  in  the 
courtly  circles  with  worse  omen  to  the  new  settlement 
than  his.  The  case  was  still  stronger  when,  having  lost 
their  way,  and  in  consequence  come  to  need  another  pa- 
tent, the  colony  was  made  a  dependency  of  the  Council  for 
New  England,  instead  of  the  Virginia  Company.  In  the 
Virginia  Company,  laboring  under  the  displeasure  of  the 
king,  and  having  Sandys  and  Wriothesley  for  its  leaders, 
there  was  a  leaven  of  popular  sentiment.  The  element 
of  absolutism  and  prelacy  was  more  controlling  in  the 
counsels  of  the  rival  corporation. 

From  these  circumstances,  the  quick  instinct  of  trade 
took  its  lesson.  To  the  favor  of  the  Council  for  New  Eng- 
land, with  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges  at  its  head,  and  the  king 
taking  its  part  against  Sir  Edward  Coke  and  the  House  of 
Commons,  the  Adventurers  were  looking  for  benefits  which 
some  of  them  had  no  mind  to  hazard  by  letting  their  set- 
tlement exhale  any  offensive  odor  of  schism.  Here  it 
seems  that  we  have  an  insight  into  the  policy  of  that 
action  to  which  Robinson  referred,  when,  in  a  letter  to 
Brewster,  now  brought  by  Winslow,  he  wrote :  "I  igsa. 
persuade  myself  that,  for  me,  they  of  all  others  are  ^®'^" "°' 
unwilling  I  should  be  transported,  especially  such  of  them 
as  have  an  eye  that  way  themselves,  as  thinking,  if  I  come 
there,  their  market  will  be  marred  in  many  regards.  And 
for  these  adversaries,  if  they  have  but  half  the  wit  to  their 

VOL.  I.  19 


218  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

malice,  tliey  will  stop  my  course  when  tbey  sec  it  in- 
tended." ' 

Here  also  we  may  find  an  explanation  of  the  selection 
of  a  minister  "  not  the  most  eminent,"  and  such  as  Cush- 
man  and  Winslow  agreed  to  take  only  "  to  give  content 
to  some  in  London."  To  send  a  clergyman  avowedly  of 
the  state  Church  was  a  course  not  to  be  thought  of  The 
colonists  could  not  be  expected  to  receive  him.  The  best 
method  for  the  purpose  in  hand  was  to  employ  some  one 
of  a  character  and  position  suited  to  get  possession  of  their 
confidence,  and  then  use  it  to  tone  down  their  religious 
strictness,  and,  if  circumstances  should  favor,  to  disturb 
the  ecclesiastical  constitution  which  they  had  set  up. 

As  the  financial  prospects  of  the  colony  faded,  the 
more  anxious  were  the  unsympathizing  London  partners 
to  relieve  it  and  themselves  from  the  stigma  of  religious 
schism.  The  taunt  that  their  colonists  were  Brownists 
depressed  the  value  of  their  stock.  It  was  for  their  inter- 
est to  introduce  settlers  of  a  different  religious  character, 
and  to  take  the  local  power,  if  possible,  out  of  the  hands 
of  those  who  represented  the  obnoxious  tenets.  To  this 
end,  it  was  their  policy  to  encourage  such  internal  dis- 
affection as  already  existed,  and  to  strengthen  it  by  the 
infusion  of  new  elements  of  discord.  A  part  even  of  the 
passengers  in  the  first  vessel,  without  religious  sympathy 
with  their  superiors,  and  jealous  of  the  needful  exercise 
of  authority,  were  fit  subjects  for  an  influence  adverse  to 
the  existing  organization.-  The  miscellaneous  importa- 
tion in  the  Fortune  followed,  and  the  whole  tenor  of  the 
discourse  of  Cushman,  who  came  and  went  in  her,  shows 
that  there  were  "  idle  drones  "  and  "  unreasonable  men  " 
mixed  with  the  nobler  associates  of  the  infant  settlement. 
The  Ann  and  her  partner,  the  last  vessels  despatched  by 
the  Adventurers,  brought  new  fuel  for  dissension  in  those 

1  liradfon],  1C6.  "vvas  to  be  bclievod,  Billingtori  was  cue 

2  If  Lyfonl,    the    factious   mmistcr,     of  Lis  allies.      (Ibid.,  181.) 


Chap.  VI.]  PLYMOUTH.  219 

of  her  company  who  came  "on  their  particular."  Nor 
docs  it  seem  hazardous  to  infer,  alike  from  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  case,  and  from  developments  which 
speedily  followed,  that  some  of  these  persons,  in  concert 
with  the  "  strong  faction  among  the  Adventurers,"  came 
over  on  the  errand  of  subverting  the  existing  government 
and  order.^ 

Lyford,  the  minister,  began  with  ostentatious  profes- 
sions of  sympathy  with  his  new  companions.  "He  sa- 
luted them  with  that  reverence  and  humility  as  is  seldom 

to  be  seen ; yea,  he  wept  and  shed  many  tears, 

and  blessed  God  for  this  opportunity  of  freedom  and 

liberty  to  enjoy  the  ordinances  of  God  in  purity  among  his 
people."      He  was  received  as  a  member  of  their  church, 
provided  with  a  more  liberal  support  than  any  other  per- 
son, and  invited  by  the  Governor,  as  Brewster  had  been, 
to  consultations  with  him  and  the  Assistants.     John  Old- 
ham, who  had  come  over  in  the  Ann,  and  had  experienced 
similar  generous  treatment,  was  "a  chief  stickler  in  the 
former  faction  among  the  particulars."     With  him,  as  it 
soon  appeared,  Lyford  was  engaged  "  in  plotting  ruction  at 
against  them,  and  disturbing  their  peace,  both  in  i''y'"°"^^- 
respect  of  their  civil  and  church  state."    When  the  Charity 
set  sail  for  England,  Bradford  followed  her  a  few      1624. 
miles  to  sea,  exammed  letters  put  on  board  by 
Lyford  and  Oldham,  and  brought  back  to  Plymouth  copies 
of  such  as  expressed  their  disaffection.     He  kept  them 
private  till    "  Lyford,   with  his   complices,   without  ever 
speaking  one  word  either  to  the'  Governor,    church,   or 
elder,  withdrew  themselves,  and  set  up  a  public  meeting 
apart,  on  the  Lord's  day,  with  sundry  such  insolent  car- 
riages, too  long  to  relate."^ 

1  "  Some  of  those  that  still  remained  dry  of  them  did  depend,  by  their  pri- 

here  on  their  particular  began  privately  vate  whispering  they  drew  some  of  the 

to  nourish  a  faction,  and  being  privy  weaker  sort  of  the  company  to  their 

to  a  strong  faction  that  was  among  the  side."     (Ibid.,  157.) 

Adventurers  in  England,  on  whom  sun-  2  Ibid.,  1 71  -  1 75. 


220  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

The  Governor  then  summoned  a  General  Court,  and 
arraigned  Lyford  and  his  confederate.  They  denied  the 
charge  of  moving  sedition  or  conducting  a  calumnious 
correspondence,  and  the  letters  were  produced  to  their 
confusion.  Lyford's  letters  complained,  that  "  the  church 
would  have  none  to  live  here  but  themselves " ;  that  "  if 
there  came  over  any  honest  men  that  were  not  of  the  sepa- 
ration [Separatists],  they  would  quickly  distaste  them  " ; 
that  "  they  utterly  sought  the  ruin  of  the  particulars,  as 
appeared  by  this,  that  they  would  not  suffer  any  of  the 
general  to  buy  or  sell  or  exchange  with  them  " ;  that  the 
weekly  distribution  of  provisions  was  unequal  and  unjust; 
that  there  was  "  exceeding  great  waste  of  tools  and  ves- 
sels "  ;  and  that  "  the  faction  here  might  match  the  Jesuits 
for  polity."  And  among  other  measures  he  advised,  "  that 
the  Leyden  company,  Mr.  E,obinson  and  the  rest,  must  still 
be  kept  back,  or  all  would  be  spoiled  " ;  that  "  such  a  num- 
ber" should  be  "  provided  as  might  oversway  them  here"; 
and  that  a  fit  person  should  be  sent  over  to  supersede  Cap- 
tain Standish,  who  "  looked  like  a  silly  boy."  The  con- 
tents of  Oldham's  letters  are  not  particularly  described. 
A  third  confederate,  not  named,  informed  his  correspond- 
ent, that  "  INIr.  Oldham  and  Mr.  Lyford  intended  a  refor- 
mation in  church  and  commonwealth."  Oldham,  before 
the  disclosure,  had  refused  to  do  his  military  duty,  drawn 
a  weapon  on  the  Captain,  insulted  the  GoAcrnor,  "  and 
called  them  all  traitors,  and  rebels,  and  other  such  foul 
language  "  ;  and  it  was  not  till  "  after  he  was  clapped  up 
awhile,  he  came  to  himself." 

On  the  discovery  of  his  clandestine  relations  to  the 
hostile  movement  in  England,  Oldham  tried  to  raise  a 
mutiny  on  the  spot ;  "  but  all  were  silent,  being  struck 
with  the  injustice  of  the  thing."  Lyford  "  was  struck 
mute,  burst  out  into  tears,  and  confessed  he  feared  he  was 
a  reprobate."  Both  were  ordered  to  leave  the  colony. 
The  sentence  was  remitted  to  Lyford,  on  his  humble  pe- 


Chap.  VI,]  PLYMOUTH.  221 

tition  for  forgiveness,  accompanied  with  a  passionate  ac- 
knowledgement of  the  falsehood  of  what  he  had 

*-'  Conviction 

written,  and  of  the  lenity  of  his  sentence.     Old-  «<■  lj  ford 

•    1  f  11  -\-r  1  1  ^'^'^  Oldham. 

ham,  with  some  followers,  went  to  IN  antasket,  the 
southern  cape  of  Boston  Bay,  where  the  Plymouth  people 
had  built  a  trading-house  for  their  convenience  in  visiting 
the  Indians  of  that  region. 

Lyford  was  not  reclaimed.     In  a  letter  to  the  Adven- 
turers he  repeated  his  iniurious  representations 
respecting  the  state  of  things  at  Plymouth.     It 
was  brought  to  the  Governor  by  the  person  to  whom  it 
had  been  intrusted  for  conveyance.      Bradford  took  no 
notice  of  it  till  the  following  spring,  when  Wins-     jcas. 
low  returned  from  a  second  visit  to  England,  with    ^^^'"'^' 
information,  that,  while  there,  he  had  ascertained  and  dis- 
closed to  the  Adventurers  certain  discreditable  facts  in 
Lyford's  early  life,  which  "  struck  all  his  friends  mute, 
and  made  them  all  ashamed."     He  was  now  deposed  from, 
the  ministry,  to  Avhich  on  his  professions  of  penitence 
he  had  been  restored,  and  went  to  join  Oldham  at  Nan- 
tasket.^     Oldham  had  lately  ventured  on  a  visit  to  Ply- 
mouth,  whence,   having   indulged   himself  there   in  op- 
probrious  language,   he  was  expelled  with  ignominious 
ceremony.^ 

Winslow  brought  further  discouraging  accounts  of  the 
sta,te  of  affairs  among  the  Adventurers.  "  As  there  had 
been  a  faction  and  siding  amongst  them  now  more  Disruption 
than  two  years,  so  now  there  was  an  utter  breach  LrVhip "r 
and  sequestration."  The  amount  of  money  due  Adventurers. 
in  London  was  not  less  than  fourteen  hundred  pounds 
sterling.^  Some  of  the  partners  remained  friendly  to  the 
colony,  and  wrote  in  terms  of  confidence  and  cheer ;  though, 
with  the  cattle,  tools,  and  clothing  which  they  sent,  orders 

1  From  Nantasket  Lyford  went  for  ^  Bradford,  171-196. 

a  little  time  to  Cape  Ann,  and  tbence  3  Letter  of  Shirley  and  others  (Brad- 

to  Virginia,  where  he  shortly  after  died,  ford,  199). 
19* 


222  HISTORY  or  new  England.  [Book  i. 

came  for  their  sale  at  "what  the  planters  considered  an 
exorbitant  advance.  From  this  time,  the  original  part- 
nership of  the  company  of  Adventurers  to  Plymouth  was 
dissolved,  two  thirds  of  those  in  London  withdrawing 
from  their  connection  with  the  colonists. 

Two  other  settlements  had  meanwhile  been  attempted ; 
one  by  a  Captain  Wollaston,  with  some  thirty  or  forty 

persons,  on  a  bluff  which  still  bears  his  name,  on 
Transactions  tlic  sea-sliorc  iu  wliat  is  now  the  town  of  Quin- 
woiras"on  cy ;  ^  the  other,  as  much  as  a  year  earlier,  on  the 
Md^at  Cape    pi;omontory  known,  since  Captain  Smith's  voyage, 

as  Cape  Ann.  *  Of  the  spasmodic  experiments 
made  by  the  Council  of  New  England  for  giving  value  to 
their  property,  one  had  been  a  distribution  of  its  territory 

amonjj  individual   members   of    the  corporation. 

1622.  "  ,     ,        '■ 

Twenty  noblemen  and  gentlemen  divided  among 
themselves  in  severalty  the  country  along  the  coast  from 
the  Bay  of  Fundy  to  Narragansett  Bay."  The  region 
about  Cape  Ann  fell  to  the  lot  of  Edmund,  Lord  Sheffield, 
J624.  who  sold  a  patent  for  it  to  Cushman  and  Wins- 
jan.  1.  jQ^y  and  their  associates  at  New  Plymouth.^  It 
was  probably  in  the  summer  before  this  transaction,'*  that 

1  Bradford,  235 ;  Dudley's  Letter  to  fishing  ships  made  such  good  returns, 
the  Countess  of  Lincoln.  at  last  it  [New  England]  was  engrossed 

2  This  project  is  sketched  in  the  by  twenty  patentees,  that  divided  my 
"  Briefe  Relation "  of  the  "  President  map  into  twenty  parts,  and  cast  lota 
and  Council  of  New  England,"  quoted  for  their  shares."  And  Purchas  (IV. 
above  (p.  208,  note).  "  Two  parts  of  the  1872)  has  a  map  representing  this 
■whole   territory,"   they  say   (31,   82),  division. 

"is  to  be  divided  between  the  paten-  3  The  indenture  between  Lord  Shef- 
tees  into  several  counties,  to  be  by  them-  field,  of  the  one  part,  and  Winslow  and 
selves  or  their  friends  planted,  at  their  Cushman  of  the  other,  has  been  recent- 
pleasure  or  best  commodity ;  the  other  ly  brought  to  light  by  JNIr.  John  Win- 
third  part"  was  to  afibrd  a  "revenue  for  gate  Thornton,  who  has  illustrated  it  in 
defraying  of  public  charge."  Connect-  a  printed  treatise,  accompanied  by  an 
ed  with  this  plan  was  (Ibid.)  that  of  the  cngra,\ed  fac-smile. 
appointment  of  a  General  Governor,  4  u  j^ijo^,t  |^)jg  yg^r  1G23,  some  West- 
which  has  been  mentioned  in  its  place  em  merchants  bethought  themselves" 
(see  above,  pp.  20G,  208,  note).  Smith  of  this  undertaking.  "  The  next  year" 
says  (True  Travels,  &c.,  4C),    "  The  they  bought  and  repaired  "  a  Flemish 


Chap.  VI.]  PLYMOUTH.  223 

a  few  persons  from  the  West  of  England  sat  down  at 
Cape  Ann  for  purposes  of  planting  and  fishing.  They 
appear  to  have  acknowledged  the  rights  of  the  Plymouth 
people,  when  made  known  to  them ;  ^  and  the  fishermen  of 
the  two  parties  carried  on  their  operations  amicably  side 
by  side,  till  Lyford  brought  his  disturbing  presence  among 
them  from  his  retreat  at  Nantasket.  A  London  vessel  in 
the  service  of  those  Adventurers  who  were  friendly  to  him 
having  arrived  at  the  place,  the  crew  took  possession  of 
a  fishing-stage  belonging  to  the  Plymouth  settlers,  and 
"  would  not  restore  the  same  except  they  would  fight  for 
it."  Contrary  to  the  wish  of  Standish,  who  had  come 
from  Plymouth  to  set  things  right,  pacific  counsels  pre- 
vailed, and  the  dispute  was  quieted  by  an  engagement  of 
the  crew  to  help  in  building  another  stage  for  the  owners, 
in  place  of  that  which  had  been  in  question. 

Plymouth  was  now  in  a  thriving  condition,  if  its  pros- 
perity was  on  no  imposing  scale.      A   year   earlier,   ac- 
cording to  what  Smith  had  learned,  there  were     ic24. 
"  about  a  hundred  and  eighty  persons  ;  some  cattle  coTdhToTof 
and  goats,  but  many  swine  and  poultry;  thirty-  p'j™""^''- 

two  dwelling-houses ; the  town  impaled  about  half  a 

mile  compass  ;  in  the  town,  upon  a  high  mount,  a  fort  well 
built  with  wood,  loam,  and  stone ;  also  a  fair  w^atch-tower ; 

and  this  year  they  had  freighted  a  ship  of  a  hundred 

and  eighty  tons."  ^     Fifty  English  ships  were  on  the  coast 

fly-boat "  for  the  voyage.     And   "  the  weary  of  the  sea,  and  enamored  with  the 

third  year,  1G25,"  they  despatched  two  beauty  of  the  bounds  that  first  offered 

vessels  to  Cape  Ann.     (Planters'  Plea,  itself  unto  them,  gorgeously  garnished 

Chap.  VII.,  VIII.)  with  all  wherewith  pi-egnant  nature,  rav- 

1  Smith,  Generall  liistorie,  247.  ishing  the  sight  with  variety,  can  grace 

2  Ibid.  Captain  John  Smith  was  a  a  fertile  field,  did  resolve  to  stay." 
more  careful  inquirer  or  reporter  than  (Map  and  Description  of  New  England, 
Sir  AVilliam  Alexander,  who  In  the  same  30.)  —  Gorges  had  received  accounts 
year  wrote :  "  Four  years  since,  a  ship  of  the  same  too  partial  character  : 
going  for  Virginia  coming  by  chance  to  "  They  landed  their  people  [at  Ply- 
harbor  in  the  southwest  part  of  New  mouth],  many  of  them  weak  and  fee- 
En2;land  near  Cape  Cod,  the  company  ble  through  the  length  of  the  naviga- 
whom  she  carried  for  plantation,  being  tlon,  the  leakiness  of  the  ship,  and  want 


224:  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLA^fD.  [Book  I. 

engaged  in  fishing,  and  every  ship  was  an  enlargement  of 
their  market  for  purchases  and  sales.  "  It  pleased  the 
Lord  to  give  the  plantation  peace  and  health  and 
contented  minds,  and  so  to  bless  their  labors  as 
they  had  corn  sufficient,  and  some  to  spare  to  others,  with 
other  food ;  neither  ever  had  they  any  supply  of  food  but 
what  they  first  brought  with  them."  Returning  from  a 
voyage  made  "  to  the  eastward,  up  a  river  called  Kenne- 
bec," in  an  open  boat,  "  Mr.  Winslow  and  some  of  the  old 
standards,  for  seamen  they  had  none,  brought  home  seven 
hundred  pounds  of  beaver,  besides  some  other  furs,  having 
little  or  nothing  else  but  this  corn,  which  themselves  had 
raised  out  of  the  earth,"  to  trade  with.^ 

The  brightening  prospect  of  the  colonists,  on  the  one 

hand,  and  the  unsatisfactory  state  of  their  affairs  Avith  the 

remaining  English  partners  on   the  other,  encouraged  a 

desire  to  rid  themselves  of  a  connection  which  had  been 

so  fruitful  of  inconvenience,  and  Standish  was  despatched 

to  England  to  obtain  a  supply  of  goods,  and  learn  what 

terms   could  be  made  for  a  release.      He   returned  the 

162C.      following  spring,  having  "  taken  up  a  hundred 

■*^P"'*  -N  and  fifty  pounds  (and  spent  a  good  deal  of  it  in 

expenses)  at  fifty  per  cent,  which  he  bestowed  in  trading 

goods  and   such  other  most  needful  commodities  as  he 

knew  requisite  for  their  use."  ^    lie  brought  the  mournful 

1C25.     intelligence  of  the  death  of  Hobinson  at  Leyden 

"'    ■    in  the  year    before ;    and   of  that   of  Cushman, 

whom  they  had  been  expecting  presently  to  welcome. 

The  loss  of  Cushman  was  painfully  felt.  He  had  been 
Death  of  "as  their  right  hand  with  their  friends  the  Adven- 
amiTr"  turers,  and  for  divers  years  had  done  and  agitated 
Cushman.      ^^l  thclr  busluess  with  them  to  their  great  advan- 

of  many  other  necessaries  such  under-  and   fowl,   willi   plenty   of  -wholesome 

takings  reciuired.     But  they  Tvere  not  roots  and  herbs  the  country  affbnled," 

many  days  ashore  before  they  had  got-  &c.     (Briefe  Narration,  Chap.  XXII.) 
ten  both  health  and  strength,  through         ^  Bradford,  204. 
the  comfort  of  the  air,  the  store  of  fish         *•  Ibid. 


Chap.  VI.]  PLYMOUTH.  225 

tage."  ^  Such  Avas  Bradford's  tribute  to  his  old  friend, 
though  Bradford  as  well  as  others  had  been  greatly  dis- 
satisfied with  his  management  and  concealment  of  that 
part  of  the  negotiation  by  which  they  lost  the  benefit  of 
two  favorite  stipulations.-  But  Robinson  was  mourned 
with  a  peculiar  sorrow.  His  powerful  ascendency  over 
the  minds  of  his  associates,  acquired  by  eminent  talents 
and  virtues,  had  been  used  disinterestedly  and  wisely  for 
their  good.  With  great  courage  and  fortitude,  he  had 
equal  gentleness  and  liberality ;  and  his  accomplishments 
of  understanding  and  the  generosity  of  his  affections  in- 
spired mingled  admiration  and  love.  Though  he  passed 
his  life  in  the  midst  of  controversy,  it  was  so  far  from 
narrowing  his  mind,  that  his  charity  towards  dissentients 
distinguished  him  among  the  divines  of  his  day,  as  much 
as  his  abilities  and  learning.  It  is  less  remarkable  that 
he  became  constantly  more  tolerant  as  he  grew  older. 

The  recent  competition  in  the  fishery,  on  the  part  both 
of  their  English  associates  and  of  others,  having  led  the 
colonists  to  regard  that  investment  of  their  labor  as  less 
profitable,^  they  turned  their  attention  to  "  trading  and 
planting,"  and  were  so  successful,  that,  before  the  close  of 
the  year,  they  had  nearly  extricated  themselves  from  debt, 
including  the  obligation  lately  incurred  for  them  by  Stan- 
dish,  and  had  stored  "  some  clothing  for  the  people  and 
some  commodities  beforehand,"  In  conjunction  with  the 
planters  at  Piscataqua,  they  made  purchases  of  a  quantity 
of  merchandise  from  some  English  at  Monhegan,  and  from 
a  French  ship  wrecked  near  that  island,"*  to  the  amount  of 
five  hundred  pounds.  During  the  winter,  they  had  the  so- 
ciety of  the  passengers  and  crew  of  a  vessel  bound  to  Vir- 
ginia, which,  falling  short  of  provisions,  had  put  in  at  the 
south  side  of  Cape  Cod,  and  had  sent  to  them  for  succor ;  ^ 

1  Bradford,  207.  fishing,  a  thing  fatal  to  this  plantation." 

2  See  above,  p.  155.  (Bradford,  158.) 

3  "The  ship  [a  vessel  in  the  employ         ^  Ibid.,  208-210. 
of  some  of  the  Adventurers]  came  on         5  Ibid.,  217-221. 


226 


HISTORY   OF  NEW   ENGLAND. 


[Book  I. 


1627. 
March  9. 


and  a  communication,  opened  by  a  letter  from  the  Dutch 
Governor  of  Fort  Amsterdam,  now  New  York, 
led  to  mutual  expressions  of  good-will,  and  offers 
of  business  intercourse  and  neighborly  good  offices.  After 
two  letters  had  passed  each  way,  Isaac  De  Rasieres,  the 
Dutch  "  upper  commis  or  chief  merchant,  and  second  to 
the  Governor,"  made  a  visit  to  Plymouth  of  "  some  few 
days."i 


1  He  came  up  Buzzard's  Bay,  "  ac- 
companied with  a  noise  of  trumpeters, 
and  some  other  attendants,"  and  landed 
at  Manomet,  whence  (October  4)  he 
sent  a  messenger  to  the  English.  "  So 
they  sent  a  boat  to  Manonscussett  [in 
Sandwich]  and  brought  him  to  the 
plantation,  with  the  chief  of  his  com- 
pany." He  sold  his  guests  some  sugar, 
linen,  and  stuffs,  for  tobacco.  "But 
that  which  turned  most  to  their  profit 
in  time  was  an  entrance  into  the  trade 
of  wampumpeag.  For  they  now  bought 
about  fifty  pounds'  worth  of  it  of  them ; 
and  they  [the  Dutch]  told  them  how 
vendable  it  was  at  their  Fort  Orania, 
and  did  persuade  them  they  would  find 
it  so  at  Kennebec.  And  so  it  came  to 
pass  in  time,  though  at  first  it  stuck ; 
and  it  was  two  years  before  they  could 
2)ut  off  tills  small  quantity,  till  the  in- 
land people  knew  of  it,  and  afterwards 
they  could  scarce  ever  get  enough  for 
them,  for  many  years  together."  (Brad- 
ford, 222-225,  233,  234.) 

To  a  letter  of  De  Rasieres,  written 
after  his  return,  we  are  indebted  for 
some  interesting  facts  respecting  the 
colony  of  Plymouth  in  the  seventh  year 
from  its  foundation.  The  letter  was 
obtained  by  ^Ir.  IJrodhead  fi-om  tlie 
archives  at  the  Hague,  and  published 
by  him  in  the  New  York  Historical 
Collections,  Second  Series,  II.  343  et  seq. 
De  llasiercs  writes  of  Plymouth  :  — 

"  At  the  south  side  of  the  town  there 
flows  down  a  small  river  of  fresh  water, 
very  rapid,  but  shallow,  which  ttikes  its 


rise  from  several  lakes  in  the  land  above, 
and  there  empties  into  the  sea ;  where 
in  April  and  the  beginning  of  May 
there  come  so  many  herring  from  the 
sea,  which  want  to  ascend  that  river, 
that  it  is  quite  surprising.  This  river 
the  English  have  shut  in  with  planks, 
and  in  the  middle  with  a  little  door, 
which  shdes  up  and  down,  and  at  the 
sides  with  trellis-work,  through  which 
the  water  has  its  course,  but  which  they 
can  also  close  with  slides.  At  the  mouth 
they  have  constructed  it  with  planks, 
like  an  eel-pot  with  wings,  where  in  the 
middle  is  also  a  sllding-door,  and  with 
trellis-work  at  the  sides,  so  that  be- 
tween thfe  two  [dams]  there  is  a  square 
pool,  into  which  the  fish  aforesaid  come 
swimming  in  such  shoals,  in  order  to 
get  up  above  where  they  dejiosit  their 
spawn,  that  at  one  tide  tliore  are  ten 
thousand  to  twelve  thousand  fish  in  it, 
which  they  shut  off  in  the  rear  at  the 
ebb,  and  close  up  the  trellises  above  so 
that  no  more  water  comes  in ;  then  the 
water  runs  out  through  the  lower  trel- 
lises, and  they  draw  out  the  fish  with 
baskets,  each  according  to  the  land  he 
cultivates,  and  carry  them  to  it,  depos- 
iting in  each  hill  three  or  four  fishes, 
and  in  these  they  plant  their  maize, 
which  grows  as  luxuriantly  therein  as 
though  it  were  the  best  maiuire  in  the 
world ;  and  if  they  do  not  lay  these 
fishes  therein,  the  maize  will  not  grow, 
such  is  the  nature  of  the  soil. 

"  New  Plymouth  lies  on  the  slope  of 
a  hill  stretching  east  towards  the  sea- 


Chap.  VI.] 


PLYMOUTH. 


227 


Mr.  Allerton,  who  had  been  sent  to  England  for  the 
purpose  of  pursuing  the  negotiation  with  the  Adventurers, 
in  which  Standish  had  made  some  progress,  as 
well  as  for  other  business,  brought  back  a  grati- 
fying account  of  his  success.  He  had  "  taken  up 
two  hundred  pounds,  which  he  now  got  at  thirty  ^jer  cent.^ 
and  brought  some  useful  goods  Avith  him,  much  to  the 
comfort  and  content  of   the  plantation."      And  he  had 


Release 
from  the 
Adventurers. 


coast,  with  a  broad  street  about  a  can- 
non shot  of  eight  hundred  [feet]  long, 
leading  down  the  hill,  with  a  [street] 
crossing  in  the  middle,  northwards  to 
the  rivulet,  and  southwards  to  the  land. 
The  houses  are  constructed  of  hewn 
planks,  with  gardens  also  enclosed  be- 
hind and  at  the  sides  with  hewn  planks, 
so  that  their  houses  and  court-yards  are 
arranged  in  very  good  order,  with  a 
stockade  against  a  sudden  attack ;  and 
at  the  ends  of  the  streets  there  are 
three  wooden  gates.  In  the  centre,  on 
the  cross-street,  stands  the  Governor's 
Louse,  before  which  is  a  square  enclos- 
ure, upon  which  four  patereros  [steen- 
stucken]  are  mounted,  so  as  to  flank 
along  the  streets.  Upon  the  hill  they 
have  a  large  square  house,  with  a  flat 
roof,  made  of  thick  sawn  planks,  stayed 
with  oak  beams,  upon  the  top  of  which 
they  have  six  cannons,  which  shoot  iron 
balls  of  four  and  five  pounds,  and  com- 
mand the  surrounding  country.  The 
lower  part  they  use  for  their  church, 
where  they  preach  on  Sundays  and  the 
usual  holidays.  They  assemble  by  beat 
of  drum,  each  with  his  musket  or  fire- 
lock, in  front  of  the  captain's  door ;  they 
have  their  cloaks  on,  and  place  them- 
selves in  order,  three  abreast,  and  are 
led  by  a  sergeant  without  beat  of  drum. 
Behind  comes  the  Governor,  in  a  long 
robe ;  beside  him,  on  the  right  hand, 
comes  the  preacher,  with  his  cloak  on, 
and  on  the  lefl  hand  the  captain,  with 
his  side-arms  and  cloak  on,  and  with 
a  small  cane  in  his  hand ;  and  so  they 


march  in  good  order,  and  each  sets  his 
arms  down  near  him.  Thus  they  are 
constantly  on  their  guard  night  and  day. 

"  Their  government  is  after  the  Eng- 
lish form.  The  Governor  has  liis  coun- 
cil, which  is  chosen  every  year  by  the 
entire  community  by  election  or  pro- 
longation of  term.  In  the  inheritance 
they  place  all  the  children  in  one  de- 
gree, only  the  eldest  son  has  an  ac- 
knowledgment for  his  seniority  of  birth. 

"  They  have  made  stringent  laws  and 
ordinances  upon  the  subject  of  fornica- 
tion and  adultery,  which  laws  they 
maintain  and  enforce  very  strictly  in- 
deed, even  among  the  tribes  which  Uve 
amongst  them.  They  [the  English] 
speak  very  angrily,  when  they  hear 
from  the  savages  that  we  should  live  so 
barbarously  in  these  respects,  and  with- 
out punishment. 

"  Their  farms  are  not  so  good  as  ours, 
because  they  are  more  stony,  and,  con- 
sequently, not  so  suitable  for  the  plough. 
They  apportion  their  land  according  as 
each  has  means  to  contribute  to  the 
eighteen  thousand  guilders  which  they 
have  promised  to  those  who  had  sent 
them  out ;  whereby  they  have  their 
freedom  without  rendering  an  account 
to  any  one;  only,  if  the  king  should 
choose  to  send,  a  Governor-General, 
they  would  be  obliged  to  acknowledge 
him  as  sovereign  chief. 

"  The  maize  seed  which  they  do  not 
require  for  their  own  use  is  delivered 
over  to  the  Governor,  at  three  guilders 
the  bushel,  who,  in  his  turn,  sends  it  in 


228  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

adjusted  witli  the  Adventurers  the  preliminaries  of  an 
arrangement  for  discharging  the  phanters  from  their  con- 
tract of  service  and  partnership.  For  the  sum  of  eigliteen 
hundred  pounds,  payahle  in  nine  equal  annual  instalments, 
beginning  in  the  following  year,  the  Adventurers  were  to 
convey  to  the  planters  "  every  their  stocks,  shares,  lands, 
merchandise,  and  chattels."  The  speculation  was  a  haz- 
ardous one  for  the  planters.  "  They  knew  not  well  how 
to  raise  the  payment,  and  discharge  their  other  engage- 
ments, and  supply  their  yearly  wants,  seeing  they  were 
forced  for  their  necessities  to  take  wp  moneys  or  goods  at 
such  high  interest.  Yet  they  undertook  it,  and  seven  or 
eight  of  the  chief  of  the  place  became  jointly  bound  for 
the  payment  of  this  eighteen  hundred  pounds,  in  the 
behalf  of  the  rest,  at  the  several  days;  in  which  they 
ran  a  great  adventure,  as  their  present  state  stood,  having 
many  other  heavy  burdens  already  upon  them,  and  all 
things  in  an  uncertain  condition."  ^ 

A  new  organization  and  distribution  were  now  adopted, 
to  meet  the  anticipated  change  of  affairs.     With  a  gener- 
ous wisdom,  the  occasion  Avas  used  to  compose  the 

Distribution  , 

of  stock  and   feud  between  the  "  generals  "  and  the  "  particulars." 
A  partnership  was  formed  of  all  the  men  on  the 

sloops  to  the  north  for  the  trade  in  skins  small-legged  birds,  which  are  in  great 
among  the  savages.  They  reckon  one  abundance  there  in  the  winter.  The 
bushel  of  maize  against  one  pound  of  tribes  in  their  neighborhood  have  all 
beaver's  skin.  In  the  first  place,  a  divis-  the  same  customs  as  already  above  de- 
ion  is  made  according  to  what  each  has  scribed,  only  they  are  better  conducted 
contnl)uted,  and  they  are  credited  for  than  ours,  because  the  EngHsh  give 
the  amount  in  the  account  of  what  each  them  the  example  of  better  ordinances 
has  to  contribute  yearly  towards  the  re-  and  a  better  life ;  and  who,  also,  to  a 
duction  of  his  obligation.  Then  with  certain  degree,  give  them  laws,  by 
the  remainder  they  purcliase  what  next  means  of  the  respect  tlicy  from  the 
they  recjuire,  and  which  the  Governor  very  first  have  established  amongst 
takes  care  to  provide  every  year.  them." 

"They  have  better  means  of  living  i  Bradford,  211-214.  The  English 
than  ourselves,  because  they  have  the  Adventurers  who  executed  this  cove- 
fish  so  abundant  before  their  doors,  nant  were  forty-two  in  number.  (See 
There  are  also  many  birds,  such  as  Bradford's  Letter-Book,  in  INIass.  Hist, 
geese,  herons,  and  cranes,   and   other  Coll.,  IIL  48.)     Six  of  them,  namely. 


Chap.  VI.]  PLYMOUTH.  229 

spot,  of  suitable  age  and  prudence,  under  an  agreement 
that  the  trade  should  "  be  managed  as  before  to  help  to 
pay  the  debts  "  in  the  way  of  a  joint-stock  company,  and 
that  every  freeman  should  have  a  single  share,  and  "  every 
father  of  a  family  also  be  allowed  to  purchase  a  share  for 
his  wife,  and  a  share  for  every  child  that  he  had  living 
with  him."^     A  division  followed  of  the  stock  and  land, 
hitherto  the  joint  property  of  the  Adventurers  and  of  their 
associates  on  the  soil.     One  cow  and  two  goats  were  as- 
signed by  lot  to  every  six  persons  or  shares,  "  and  swine, 
though  more  in  number,  yet  by  the  same  rule.     Then 
they  agreed  that  every  person  or  share  should  have  twenty 
acres  of  land  divided  unto  them,  besides  the  single  acres 
they  had  already.   .....  But  no  meadows  were  to  be  laid 

out  at  all,  nor  were  not  of  many  years  after,  because  they 
were  but  strait  of  meadow  grounds,  and  if  they  had  been 
now  given  out,  it  would  have  hindered  all  addition  to 
them  afterwards ;  but  every  season  all  were  appointed 
where  they  should  mow,  according  to  the  proportion  of 
cattle  they  had."  The  houses  became  private  property  by 
an  equitable  assignment.^  The  vassalage  to  the  foreign 
merchants  was  over.  Henceforward  there  were  to  be 
New-England  freeholders. 

The  first  coveted  luxury  of  their  emancipated  state 
was  a  reunion  with  their  ancient  companions.  Hither- 
to the  pleasure  of  others  might  decide  who  should  join 
them.  That  embarrassment  was  now  withdrawn.  Their 
tender  mutual  recollections  had  naturally  been  refreshed 
by  their  common  mourning  for  their  "  loving  and  faithful 
pastor."     To  put  the  financial  affairs  in  a  more  manage- 

White,  Pocock,  Goffe,  Sharpe,  Revell,  taken  away ;  therefore  they  resolved  to 

and  Andrews,  were  afterwards  members  take   in   all   amongst   them   that  were 

of  the  Massachusetts  Company.  either  heads  of  families,  or  single  young 

1  "  Except  peace   and   union    were  men  that  were  of  ability,  and  free,  and 

preserved,  they  should  be  able  to  do  able  to  govern  themselves  with  meet 

nothing,  but  endanger  to  overthrow  all,  discretion,"  &c.    (Bradford,  214.) 

now  that  other  ties   and   bonds  were  2  Bradford,  214- 217. 

VOL.  I.  20 


230  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

able  shape,  eight  of  the  settlers  ^  entered  into  an  cngage- 

j„,^.      mcut  with  the  colony  to  farm  its  trade  for  a  term 

The  trade      of  six  Yoars.    In  consideration  of  the  sole  right  of 

fanned  by  •'  ^  ^  t         •  ri 

eight  coio-  trading,  of  an  annual  payment  by  each  colonist  oi 
three  bushels  of  corn  or  six  pounds  of  tobacco,  and 
of  the  transfer  to  them  of  three  vessels,  with  "  the  whole 
stock  of  furs,  felts,  beads,  corn,  wampumpeag,  knives,  &c. 
that  was  now  in  the  store,  or  any  way  due  upon  account," 
the  eight  agreed  to  make  the  annual  payments  due  from 
the  colony  in  London  ;  to  discharge  the  other  debts  of  the 
plantation,  amounting  to  about  six  hundred  pounds  more; 
and  to  bring  over,  every  year,  fifty  pounds'  worth  of  hose 
and  shoes,  and  sell  them  for  corn  at  six  shillings  a  bushel.^ 
AUerton  was  despatched  again  to  England  to  conclude  the 
transaction  there,  and  attend  to  other  business,  which  he 
prosperously  completed.  On  his  return,  the  fol- 
lowing spring,  "  he  brought  a  reasonable  supply 
of  goods  "  ;  and  reported  that  he  had  paid  the  first  instal- 
ment to  the  Adventurers,  delivered  the  bonds  for  the  resi- 
due of  the  debt,  and  obtained  the  due  conveyance  and 
release;  that  he  had  discharged  all  other  debts,  except 
those  due  to  four  friends,^  who  agreed  to  take  an  interest 
and  become  partners  in  the  six  years'  hire  of  the  trade, 
and  to  charge  themselves  with  the  transportation  of  a 
company  from  Lcyden ;  and  lastly,  that  he  had  obtained 
from  the  Council  for  New  England  a  patent  for  land  on 
the  Kennebec.'*  The  patent  was  immediately  turned  to 
account  by  the  erection  of  "  a  house  up  above  in  that 
river,  in  the  most  convenient  place  for  trade."  ^ 

1  Thf-y    were    Bradford,    Brewster,  glue  of  tlie  company "  (Cushman's  Ict- 

Winsluw,     SUmdish,     Prince,     Alden,  tcr  in  ]\Iass.  Hist.  Coll.,  III.  34),  wrote, 

llowland,  and   AUerton.     Prince   bad  that  some  of  the  Adventurers  liad  fallen 

come  over  in  the  Fortune ;  all  the  oth-  out   with   him,   because,   adds   he,   "I 

crs,  in  tlie  Mayflower.  would  not  side  with  them  against  you, 

s  P.radfonl,  '>2o  -  228.  and  the  going  over  of  the  Leydeu  peo- 

3  They   were   James    Shirley,  John  pic"     (Bradford,  2^0.) 
Beauchamp,     Piichanl     Andrews,    and  "^  Ibid.,  2.'J2. 

Timotliy     Ilatherlty.       Shirley,     "  the         5  Jbid.,  233. 


Chap.  VI.] 


PLYMOUTH.  231 


Allerton  also,  of  his  own  motion,  "  brought  over  a  young 
man  for  a  minister ;  liis  name  was  Mr.  E,ogers."  Except 
during  the  short  time  of  Lyford's  service,  Brewster  had  been 
the  spiritual  guide  of  the  colony,  preaching  to  them  and 
leading  in  their  devotions,  though  not  dispensing  the  sacra- 
ments. From  undertaking  this  last  service  he  was  discour- 
aged by  Robinson,  who  wrote  to  him  that  he  judged  it  "not 
lawful  for  a  ruling  elder,  nor  convenient,  if  it  were  lawful."^ 
While  Robinson  lived,  the  colonists  expected  to  be  joined 
by  him.  When  he  died,  they  had  for  a  long  time  no  suc- 
cess in  attempts  to  supply  his  place.  Rogers  proved  to  be 
"  crazed  in  his  brain ;  so  they  were  fain  to  be  at  further 
charge  to  send  him  back  again  the  next  year."~  Mean- 
while, Brewster  "  taught  twice  every  Sabbath,  and  that 
both  powerfully  and  profitably,  to  the  great  contentment 
of  the  hearers  and  their  comfortable  edification.  Yea, 
many  were  brought  to  God  by  his  ministry.  He  did  more 
in  this  behalf  in  a  year,  than  many  that  have  their  hun- 
dreds a  year  do  in  all  their  lives." ^ 

An  incident.,  which  occurred  this  spring,  illustrates  the 
condition  of  the  settlements  on  and  about  Massachusetts 
Bay.  It  has  been  mentioned  that  a  Captain  Wollaston 
attempted  a  plantation  on  a  spot  which  still  bears 
his  name,  near  Boston  harbor.'*  "  Not  finding 
things  to  answer  his  expectations,"  he  withdrew  with  part 
of  his  company  to  Virginia,  and  presently  sent  for  a  por- 
tion of  the  rest.  In  his  absence,  one  Thomas  Morton, 
"  who  had  been  a  kind  of  pettifogger,  of  Furnival's  Inn," 
obtained  an  ascendency  among  them,^  and  displaced  the 

1  Robinson,  letter  in  Young's  "  Pil-  the  year  since  the  incarnation  of  Christ 
grims,"  477.  1C22,  it  was  my  chance  to  be  landed  in 

2  Bradford,  243.  the  parts  of  New  England."     "  In  the 

3  Ibid.,  413.  month  of  June,  anno  salutis   1622,  it 

4  See  above,  p.  222.  was  my  chance  to  arrive  in  the  parts 

5  Bradford  (23G)  understood  IMorton  of  New  England."  If  this  is  true,  he 
to  have  come  over  with  Wollaston.  But  may  have  come  with  Weston's  people 
^Morton  (New  English  Canaan,  Book  I.  in  the  Charity.  According  to  his  title- 
Chap.  II.,  Book  U.  Chap.  I.)  says,  "  In  page,  he  was  "  of  Clifford's  Inn." 


0;^2  HISTORY  OF  KEW  ENGLAXD.  [Book  I. 

person  left  hy  Wollnston  in  charge.     The  habits  of  shame- 
less license  and   revelry  -which  he  introduced  at  Merry* 
Mount,  —  as  he  called  his  hold,  —  drunkenness, 

Procpcdings 

at  Mero--  gambling,  dancing  about  a  maypole,  singing  rib- 
ald songs,  debauching  the  Indian  women,  and 
other  "  beastly  practices  of  the  mad  Bacchanalians,"  were 
a  sore  offence  to  their  sober  neighbors.  By  enticing  away 
their  servants,  he  increased  his  rabble  rout.  But  what 
made  his  presence  intolerable  was,  that,  to  support  this 
wild  course  of  life,  Morton  sold  fire-arms  and  ammunition 
freely  to  the  natives.  It  had  been  done  before  by  the 
French,  and  by  transient  fishermen ;  but  the  extent  to 
which  the  traffic  was  now  carried  on  excited  serious 
alarm,  and  messen":ers  from  the  neighboring'  set- 

1G28.  p  ^  &  & 

tlements,  after  deliberation  upon  the  danger,  so- 
licited the  Plymouth  people  to  interfere. 

The  messenger  despatched  to  Morton,  "  in  a  friendly 
and  neighborly  way,  to  admonish  him, to  forbear  these 
courses,"  was  sent  back  with  affront.  A  second  remon- 
strance was  of  no  more  avail.  The  third  messenger  was 
"  Captain  Standish,  and  some  other  aid  with  him."  Mor- 
ton barricaded  his  house,  defied  the  invaders,  and  fortified 
his  comrades  with  drink.  But  they  Avere  disarmed  and 
dispersed  without  bloodshed,  and  their  leader  was  con- 
^^  ducted  to  Plymouth,  whence  he  was  sent  to  Eng- 
land, with  letters  to  the  Council  and  to  Sir 
Ferdinando  Gorges,  setting  forth  the  danger  of  his  prac- 
tices.^ lie  went  in  the  custody  of  John  Oldham,  who,  by 
large  professions  of  repentance  for  his  past  miscarriages, 
had  become  reconciled  Mith  the  Plymouth  peoi^le.^ 

1  r.radfonl,   235-213.      The  letters  as  described   by   Lis  adversaries.     He 

Fcnt  witli  Morton  arc  in  the  IMass.  Hist,  writes  precisely  like  what  his  American 

Coll.,  III.  02-04.     lie  Jias  made  his  neighbors   took   him   for,  a  witty  and 

own  report  of  these  proceedings  in  his  knowing,  but  shiftless,  reckless,  grace- 

"  New  Knglish  Canaan  " ;  with  no  little  less,  shameless  rake. 
wit,  it  must  bo  allowed,  but  not  in  such  2  Bradford,  101. 
a  way  as  to  mend  the  aspect  of  his  case. 


Chap.  VI.]  SETTLEMENTS  NEAR  PLYMOUTH.  233 

The  contributions  to  the  expense  of  this  expedition, 
from  settlements  and  individuals,  are  on  record.^  The  set- 
tlements were  Plymouth  and  Piscataqua  (Ports- English  piam- 
mouth),  which  paid  each  two  pounds  ten  shil-  about  ILsa- 
lings,  and  Naumkeag  and  Nantasket,  each  as-  "="""«"^  ^^y- 
sessed  one  pound  ten  shillings.  Nantasket,  now  Hull, 
was  the  seat  of  Oldham's  party.  Of  Naumkeag,  now 
Salem,  an  account  will  be  more  appropriately  given  in 
another  place.  The  share  of  "  Mr.  Jeffrey  and  Mr.  Burs- 
lem "  was  two  pounds.  Their  cottages  probably  stood 
at  Wilinisimmet,  now  Chelsea.  Edward  Hilton,  Mrs. 
Thompson,  and  Mr.  Blaxton  contributed  respectively  one 
pound,  fifteen  shillings,  and  twelve  shillings.  Edward 
Hilton  was  seated  at  Cochecho  on  the  Piscataqua  Piver ; 
William  Blaxton  on  the  peninsula  of  Shawmut,  afterwards 
Boston;  and  jNIrs.  Thompson,  widow  of  David  Thompson, 
formerly  of  Piscataqua,  on  the  island  called  by  his  name 
in  Boston  harbor.^  AVithin  the  same  circuit,  there  were 
perhaps  solitary  planters,  whose  names  do  not  appear  in 
the  transaction.  Thomas  Walford  may  have  been  already, 
where  he  was  found  presently  after,  on  the  peninsula  of 
Mishawum  (since  Charlestown),  and  Samuel  Maverick  on 
Noddle's  Island,  hard  by.  Cape  Ann,  lately  a  dependency 
of  Plymouth,  and  Wessagusset  (Weymouth)  had  probably 
a  few  inhabitants.  Some  of  the  individuals  who  have 
been  named  may  have  been  of  the  company  dispersed 
after  the  unsuccessful  attempt  of  Robert  Gorges  to  make 
a  settlement  at  the  latter  place.  Plymouth  had  extended 
itself  w^estwardly  to  Buzzard's  Bay  by  an  outpost  on  Ma- 
nomet  River,  kept  by  "  some  servants,  who  planted  corn, 
and  reared  some  swine."  ^ 

Besides  the  settlements  scattered  from  Plymouth  on  the 
one  side  to  the  river  Piscataqua  on  the  other,  a  few  begin- 
nings, and  attempts  at  beginnings,  of  English  plantations 

1  See     Bradford's    Letter-Book,    in         2  Mass.  Col.  Rec,  11.  245. 
Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  IIL  G3.  3  Bradford,  221. 

20* 


20J:  HISTORY   OF  XEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

beyond  tliat  river,  have  been  mentioned.^     Similar  under- 
takings of  Frenchmen  on  the  same  line  of  coast  still  fur- 
ther  east   had   as  yet  been  attended  with  small  success. 
AMien   half  a  century  had    elapsed  after  those 
frustrated    expeditions    which    immediately    fol- 
lowed the  discovery  of  the   St.   Lawrence,   the   Marquis 
de  la  Eoche  conducted  forty  convicts  from  the 

1598. 

French  prisons  to  the  Isle  of  Sable,  fifty  miles 
southeast  from  Cape  Breton.     At  the  end  of  seven  years, 
a    vessel    came   to   convey    them    back    to    France,    and 
found  only  twelve  alive.     When  De  Monts,  on  the  revo- 
cation of  his  monopoly,   abandoned   his   designs 
upon    Acadie-   (the   name    given    to   the    penin- 
sula now  called  Nova  Scotia,  and  to  an  indefinite  extent 
of  territory  around  it),  his  friend,  De  Poutrincourt,  still 
remained  with  some   companions  at  Port  Royal.     From 
this  place,  two  Jesuit  missionaries  from  France  proceeded, 
with  twenty  or  thirty   companions,   to   found  a 
colony  on  the  island   of  Mount   Desert,   at   the 
mouth  of  the  Penobscot.     It  was  broken  up  almost  imme- 
diately by  Captain  Argall,  from  Virginia,  as  has  already 
been  related.^     In  the  same  or  the  following  year,  Argall 
visited  Port  Poyal,  destroyed  its  fortification,  and  carried 
away  a  part  of  its  inhabitants,  while  the  rest  dispersed  them- 
selves mto  the  interior.     It  was  six  or  seven  years  after  this 
time,  when  the  playwright,  William  Alexander,  who  began 
life  as  travelling  companion  to  the  young  Earl  of  Argyll, 
and  was  subsequently  raised  to  the  Scottish  peerage   as 
Earl  of  Stirling^,  obtained  from  the  Council  for 

1C2I.  ^ 

New  England  his  patent  for  Nova  Scotia,  a  coun- 
try defined  in  that  instrument  as  extending  from  the  St. 
Croix  to  the  St.  Lawrence.     The  party  which  he  sent  out 
to  take  possession  found  Port  lloyal  again  occu- 
pied  by    Frenchmen,   and  returned  without  at- 

>  Sro.  a1)ovo,  pp.  205,  230.  3  See  above,  p.  85. 

'■^  S<;o  alj<j\e,  pp.  7  7,  78. 


Chap.  VI.]   NEW  FRANCE  AND  NEW  NETHERLAXD.        235 

tempting  its  reduction.     But  in  the  war  which  broke  out 
in  the  second  year  of  Charles  the  First,  it  was 

•^  ,    ^  '  1C28. 

taken  by  an  expedition  commanded  by  Sir  Wil- 
liam Kirk.     The  capture  of  Quebec  by  the  same     1029. 
force  followed  in  the  next  year,  and  for  a  little    ^"'^  ^^" 
time  New  France  disappeared  from  the  map  of  America. 
On  the  western  border  of  New  England  another  nation 
seemed  to  have  established  itself  with  better  prospects. 
It  was  in  the  service  of  the  Dutch  East  India  NewNeth- 
Company  that  Henry  Fludson,  an  Englishman,  "'''"'^' 
bound  on  the  usual  search  for  a  northwestern  passage  to 
the  Indies,  had  entered  the  river  since  called  by     jcog. 
his  name,  and  explored  its  length  for  more  than  September. 
a  hundred  and  fifty  miles.      Other  navigators   from  the 
Netherlands,    allured    by    his    report,    soon   followed   for 
traffic  with  the  natives ;   and,  within  three  or  four  years 
after  his  visit,  they  had  erected  some  huts  on  the  island 
of  Manhattan,^    and  a  warehouse  and  stockade 

.  1614. 

near  the  spot  where  now  stands  the  city  of  Al- 
bany. Adriaen  Block,  in  a  vessel  of  sixteen  tons,  built  at 
Manhattan,  explored  Long  Island  Sound  and  Narragan- 
sett  Bay,  and  probably  sailed  forty  or  fifty  miles  up  Con- 
necticut River,  and  into  Massachusetts  Bay  as  far  as  the 
promontory  of  Nahant." 

1  In   Plantagcnet's  "  New   Albion,"  tented  them  for  their  charge  and  voy- 

pubhshed  in  1G48,  is  a  story  that  Argall  age,  and  by  his  letter,  sent  to  Virginia 

and  his   party,  on  their   return   from  and  recorded,  submitted  himself,  com- 

Mount   Desert   to    Virginia,    in    1013,  pany,  and   plantation   to  his  Majesty, 

"landed  at  Manhatas  Isle,  in  Hudson's  and  to  the  Governor  and  government 

River,  where  they  found  four   houses  of  Virginia."     This    story    is    adopted 

built,  and  a  pretended  Dutch  Governor  as  true  by  Smith  (History  of  New  York, 

under  the  W^est-India  Company  of  Am-  2),   and    generally   by   recent   histori- 

sterdam,  who  kept  trading-boats,   and  ans.      But  Mr.   Brodhead  (History  of 

trucking  with  the  Indians ;  but  the  said  New  York,  I.  754,  755)  gives  weighty 

knights  told  him  their  commission  was  reasons  for  accounting  it  a  mere  fiction, 
to  expel  him  and  all  alien  intruders  on         2  X)e  Laet,  in  N.  Y.  Hist.  Coll.,  I. 

his  Majesty's  dominions  and  territories,  291-297.  —  It  is  from  this  navigator 

this  being  part  of  Virginia,   and  this  that    Block   Island,    lying    eastwardly 

river  an  English  discovery  by  Hudson,  from  Long  Island,  takes  its  name, 
an  Englishman.     The  Dutchman  con- 


230  UISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

Block  carried  home  an  account  of  his  discoveries,  and 
some  merchants  of  Amsterdam  obtained  from  the  States- 
General    a    charter    for    three    years'   monopoly  of   the 

j^,!-       trade  of  New  Netherland  (as  it  was  now  called), 

Jail.  1.  defined  as  extending,  between  New  France  and 
^'irginia,  from  the  fortieth  to  the  forty-fifth  degree  of 
north  latitude.  But  the  region  appears  as  yet  to  have 
been  visited  only  for  trade,  and  not  to  have  received  any 
permanent  Dutch  inhabitants.  In  his  last  voyage  from 
Virginia  to  New  England,  Captain  Dernier^  had  "met 
with  some  Hollanders  that  were  settled  in  a  place  we  call 
Hudson's  Iti\  er,  in  trade  with  the  natives ;  who  forbade 
them  the  place,  as  being  by  his  Majesty  appointed  to  us. 
Their  answer  was,  they  understood  no  such  thing,  nor 
found  any  of  our  nation  there,  so  that  they  hoped  they 
had  not  oftendcd."^  Bursuing  his  way,  Dermer  had  passed 
through  Long-Island  Sound,  probably  the  first  English- 
man who  ever  sailed  on  its  waters. 

At  the  expiration  of  the  time  limited  in  the  charter  of 
the  Amsterdam  merchants,  the  government  refused  to  re- 
new it,  having  in  view  more  extensive  operations  in  which 
its  purpose  would  be  embraced.    The  charter  of  the  Dutch 

1C21.      West-India  Company  followed,  in  six  months,  that 

June  3.  Q^  ^|-^j2  Council  for  New  England.  It  was  while 
this  measure  was  pending,  that  the  merchants  of  Amster- 
dam had  proposed  to  Robinson's  congregation  to  emigrate 
under  their  patronage,^  and  that,  adopting  a  dificrent  plan, 
the  colonists  of  the  ]\layflowcr  had  sailed  for  the  vicinity 
of  the  Hudson,  and,  missing  their  way,  had  arrived  at 
Cape  Cod. 

New  Netherland  was  not  named  in  the  charter  of  the 
Dutch  West-India  Company,  but  the  powers  conferred 
by  it  were  construed   to  extend   to   operations  on  that 

1  .S<'C  a1)ovp,  pp.  99,  100.  Prosidont   and   Council  of   New  Eng- 

^  OorgcH,    IJriefc    Narration,    Cliap.     land,  17. 
XXI.      Comp.  Briefc  llelalion  of  the         3  See  above,  p.  149,  note  2. 


Chap.  VI.]  NEW  NETHERLAND.  237 

coast;  and,  regarding  it  in  connection  with  the  expedi- 
tions to  Hudson's  River,  the  English  court  took  alarm, 
and  Sir  Dudley  Carleton  was  instructed  "  to  remonstrate 
with  the  States-General  against  intrusions  in  New  Eng- 
land." ^  The  States  promised  to  look  into  the  question, 
and  there,  for  the  present,  the  matter  rested.  The  Dutch 
continued  their  trade  with  the  natives  at  and  about  Man- 
hattan, and  extended  it  eastward  as  far  as  Buzzard's  Bay. 
More  than  two  years  had  passed  from  the  date  of  its 
charter,    when    the    West-India    Company    took 

1622. 

possession  of  New  Netherland,  and  yet  another 
year,  when  the  first  permanent  colony  was  there 
established.      Mey,  who  for  ten  years  had  been 
familiar  Avith  the  place,  and  who  in  one  of  his  coasting 
voyages  had  discovered  that  cape  of  Delaware  Bay  which 
preserves  his  name,  was  made  Director.     He  retained  his 
office  but  a  year,  and  his  successor,  Verhulst,  for  only  the 
same  period.       Peter  Minuit  was  next  invested 
with  the  government,  which  he  still  administered 
at  the  time  to  which  the  history  of  Plymouth  has  now 
been  brought  down.     He  purchased  the  island  of  Man- 
hattan from  the  natives  for  a  consideration  about  equiva- 
lent to  twenty-four  dollars,"  and  began  the  erection  of  a 
fort  at  its  southern  end,  which  he  called  Fort  Amsterdam. 
It  was  in  his  time  that  De  Pasieres  came  to  Plymouth.^ 
A  letter  which  preceded  that  messenger  by  six      1027. 
months  informed  Bradford  of  the  establishment  of  ^'"'"'^  ^' 
the  Dutch  colony,  and  assured  him  of  their  wish  to  culti- 
vate relations  of  commerce  and  friendship  with  him  and 
his  associates.     In  his  replv,  the  Governor  recip- 
rocated  these  professions,  but  used  the  occasion  to 
warn  the  Dutch  against  attempts  at  encroachment  on  any 
of  the  territory  north  of  the  fortieth  degree  of  latitude,"* 

1  Journal  of  the  Prhy   Council  for  3  gee  above,  pp.  226-229. 
December  15,  1621.  ■*  This   part  of  Bradford's   letter  is 

2  Brodhead's   Address   to   the   New  omitted  from  the  copy  in  bis  History 
York  Historical  Society,  in  1844,  p.  26.  (224),  but  is  preserved,  as  well  as  the 


238  HISTORY  OF  KEW  ENGLAIfD.  [Book  I. 

claimed,  as  it  was,  by  the  Council  for  New  England.     The 
answer  Avas  "very  friendly,  but  maintaining  their 
right  and  liberty  to  trade  in  those  parts,"  derived 
from  the  autliority  of  "  the  States  of  Holland."     Bradford 
next  presented  the  case  with  more  fulness  and 
more  decision,  but  recommended  a  submission  of 
it  to  the  superiors  of  both  parties  in  Europe,  and  request- 
ed a  visit  from  some  of  the  Dutch,  for  conference  on 
their  affairs  of  business.     This  invitation,  coupled  with  a 
desire  to  deprive  the  Plymouth  people  of  a  motive  for  ex- 
peditions to  the  west,-'  brought  De  Rasieres  to  their  town, 
whence,  on  his  return,  he  bore  another  remon- 

Oct.  1.  '  ,  ' 

strance  against  w^hat  w^as  understood  to  be  intru- 
sion on  the  English  domain.  In  informing  the  Council 
for  Xew  England  of  the  movement,  Bradford  wrote,  "  We 
understand  that,  for  strength  of  men  and  fortification,  they 
far  exceed  us,   and  all  in  this  land."     In  the  following 

year,   Xew  Amsterdam  received  its   first  cler^^v- 

1G28.  o  .  .  . 

man.-  It  is  believed  to  have  had  at  that  time 
a  population  of  two  hundred  and  seventy  persons.^ 

letters  •which  followed,   in  his  Letter-  if  -we  will  not  leave  off  dealing  with 

Book.    (]\Iass.  Hist.  Coll.,  III.  51  -5G).  that  people,  they  will  be  obliged  to  use 

1  "  They   have   built   a   shallop   [at  other   means.      If  they  do  that   now, 

^Linomet]  in  order  to  go  and  look  after  while  they  are  yet  ignorant  how  the 

the  trade  in  sewan  [the  Dutch  name  for  case  stands,    what  will  they  do  when 

wampum]  in  Sloup's  Bay  [an  inlet  of  they  do  get  a  notion  of  it  V  "    (Letter  of 

Jsarragansctt  Bay], which  I  have  De  Rasieres,  cited  above,  p.  226,  note.) 

prevented  for  this  year  by  selling  them  2  jjjg  name  was  Jonas  Michaelius. 

fifty   fathoms   of   sewan,    because   the  The  fact  of  the  existence,  so  early,  of 

seeking  after  sewan  by  them  is  preju-  a  church  at  New  Amsterdam,  has  just 

dicial  to  us,  inasmuch  as  they  would,  by  been  brought  to  light  by  !Mr.  ^lurjjhy, 

60  doing,  discover  the  trade  in  furs ;  Minister  of  the  United  States  at  the 

which  if  they  were  to  find  out,  it  would  ILigue. 

be  a  great  trouble  for  us  to  maintain;  ^  Brodhead,  History  of  New  York,  I. 

for  they  already  dare  to  threaten  that,  183. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

The  emigration  of  the  Englishmen  who  settled  at  Ply- 
mouth had  been  prompted  by  religious  dissent.  In  what 
manner  Robinson,  who  was  capable  of  speculating  on 
political  tendencies,  or  Brewster,  whose  early  position  had 
compelled  him  to  observe  them,  had  augured  concerning 
the  prospect  of  public  affairs  in  their  native  country,  no 
record  tells ;  while  the  rustics  of  the  Scrooby  congrega- 
tion, who  fled  from  a  government  which  denied  them  lib- 
erty in  their  devotions,  could  have  had  but  little  knowl- 
edge, and  no  agency,  in  the  political  sphere.  The  case  was 
widely  different  with  the  founders  of  the  Colony  of  Massa- 
chusetts Bay.  That  settlement  had  its  rise  in  a  state  of 
things  in  England  which  associated  religion  and  politics 
in  an  intimate  alliance. 

The  decline  of  the  military  system  of  the  Middle  Ages 
had  brought  about  a  necessity  for  new  political  organiza- 
tions.    The  power  of  the  great  feudatories  ceas- 
ing to  be  the  controlling  clement  in  affairs,  the  conflict  be- 

1    •        -I  J  T  •         •     1  i  tween  arbi- 

monarchical  and  popular  prmciples  Avere  to  con-  ,raryand 
front  each  other  in  open  field.     France  took  the  p^'P"^.''' 

i-  principles. 

lead   among   the    states  of  Western   Europe   in 
bringing  to  a  settlement  the  question,  which  of  the  two 
opposing  forces  was  to  prevail.     AVhen  the  necessities  of 
the  invasion  from  England  excused  Charles  the  Seventh 
for  establishino^  "the  first  standinor  army  in  mod- 
ern  Europe,"     they  enabled  him  to  found  a  des- 
potism.    In  Spain,  whose  constitutions  were  more  popular 

1  Ranke,  Civil  Wars  and  Monarchy  in  France,  Chap.  IV. 


240  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  ,  [Book  I. 

than  those  of  llic  other  kingdoms  of  the  West,^  the  con- 
troversy came  to  a  decision  in  the  following  century,  and, 
under  the  auspices  of  Cardinal  Ximenes  and  the  Emperor 
Charles  the  Fifth,  was  determined  with  the  same  issue. 
In  England,  the  dynasty  of  the  Tudors  was  far  from 
wanting  the  vigor  of  character  required  to  bring  about 
an  equally  calamitous  result.  But  in  two  respects  the 
sovereigns  of  that  line  were  at  a  disadvantage  as  compared 
with  the  Continental  monarchs.  One  was,  that  the  insular 
position  of  their  realm  withheld  from  them  all  excuse 
for  the  creation  of  that  necessary  instrument  of  arbitrary 
rule,  a  body  of  mercenary  soldiers.  The  other  was,  that, 
when  the  claims  of  prerogative  and  the  claims  of  a  devel- 
oped love  of  freedom  were  approaching  a  collision,  re- 
lio-ious  questions  had  complicated  themselves  with 

Its  relations  o  a  j- 

in  England  thc  poHtical  dlsputc,  and  the  courage  of  the  peo- 
ple had  been  exalted  by  the  enthusiasm  of  re- 
ligious reform. 

The  last  of  the  Tudors  left  the  controversy  pending ; 
and  a  gracious  Providence,  which  had  great  things  in 
store  for  England,  and  through  England  for  the  world, 
was  pleased  at  this  momentous  juncture  to  place  a  learned 
fool  upon  thc  throne  of  that  kingdom.^  The  reign  of 
Its  progress  Jamcs  tlic  Flrst  is  the  period  of  the  vital  struggle 
oHaLls'the  between  popular  and  arbitrary  principles,  though 
^"^''  the  open  conflict  and  the  fruits  of  victory  did  not 

come  till  later. 

The  pretensions  and  severities  of  Archbishop  Bancroft, 
after  the  Conference  and  the  Convocation  at  the  beginning 
of  this  reign,  rendered  more  distinct  the  positions  of  the 
two  classes  of  religious  malecontents.  While  the  Sepa- 
ratists^ of  whom  were  the  emigrants   to    Plymouth,    re- 

'  Proscott,  History  of  the  Reign  of  age,  who   had   given   him  Greek   and 

Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  I.  Ixxix.  Latin  in  great  waste  and  profusion;  but 

^  "He  liad  been  bred  up  under  Bu-  it  was  not  in  his  power  to  give  him  good 

ehanan,  one  of  the  brightest  geniuses  sense."      (Stitb,    History   of  Virginia, 

and  most  accomplished  scholars  of  that  Pref.,  vii.) 


Chap.  VII.]  PUEITAN  POLITICS  IN  ENGLAND,  241 

linqiiished  the  communion  of  the  Established  Church, 
and  set  up  distinct  assemblies,  the  more  numerous  Non- 
conformists "svere  scrupulous  about  the  sin  of  schism,  and 
chose  rather  to  continue  their  protest  against  the  prelati- 
cal  ceremonies  and  discipline  from  a  position  within  the 
pale  of  a  Church  which  they  owned  to  be  pure  in  doctrine.^ 
This  position  would  naturally  be  preferred  to  that  of  sep- 
aration, by  such  as  were  from  temper  more  hopeful  of  im- 
provement, or  from  circumstances  more  competent  to  at- 
tempt it,  or,  from  repugnance  to  the  forfeiture  of  social 
advantages,  more  inclined  to  a  course  of  postponement  or 
compromise.  And  accordingly,  for  a  considerable  period 
longer,  the  great  conflict  of  the  High-Churchmen  and  their 
royal  coadjutor  was  not  with  Separatists,  but  with  Non- 
conformists. By  intimidation  for  the  weak  and  banish- 
ment or  harder  measures  for  the  resolute,  dissent  under 
the  former  phase  was  almost  extirpated  for  the  time  in 
England.  Under  the  latter,  it  maintained  itself,  with 
many  defeats,  but  on  the  whole  with  a  steady  persever- 
ance ;  and  in  the  strife  which  followed,  engaging  men  of 
the  best  ability  on  both  sides,  an  attentive  observer 
might  discern  a  constant  advance  of  the  Non-conformist 
party  towards  an  occupation  of  the  Separatist  ground. 
The  argument,  as  it  widened  and  warmed,  drove  the  dis- 
putants further  apart ;  and  the  harsh  discipline,  by  which 
the  Church  sought  to  enforce  the  reasonings  of  her  cham- 
pions, had  its  natural  effect  on  men  who  meant  to  be 
temperate,  but  who  were  liable  to  be  provoked  by  injus- 
tice and  presumption. 

Meanwhile,  none  but  the  most  loyal  language  was  used 
by  the  disaffected    clergy.       "  Let   the   bishops,"    wrote 
the  Non-conformist  ministers  of  Devon  and  Corn-      1607. 
wall,  "  sift  well  our  courses  since  his  Majesty's  S'on°^ 
hapgy  entrance  in  among  us,  and  let  them  name  ^°^^°™''^^- 
wherein  we  have  done  aught  that  may  justly  be  said  ill 

1  See  above,  p.  118. 

VOL.  I.  21 


240  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND  [Book  I. 

to  bcoomc  the  ministers  of  Jesus  Christ?  Have  we 
drawn  any  sword  ?  Have  we  raised  any  tumult  1  Have 
we  used  any  threats "?  Hath  the  state  been  put  into  any 
fear  or  liazard  through  us  ?  Manifold  disgraces  have  been 
cast  upon  us,  and  we  have  endured  them.  The  liberty 
of  our  ministry  hath  been  taken  from  us,  and,  though 
with  bleeding  hearts,  we  have  sustained  it.  We  have 
been  cast  out  of  our  houses,  and  deprived  of  our  ordinary 
maintenance,  yet  have  we  blown  no  trumpet  of  sedition. 
These  things  have  gone  very  near  us,  and  yet  did  we  never 
so  much  as  entertain  a  thought  of  violence.  "VVe  have 
petitioned  the  king  and  state;  and  who  hath  reason  to 
deny  us  that  liberty  ?  We  have  craved  of  the  prelates  to 
deal  with  us  according  to  law ;  and  is  not  this  the  com- 
mon benefit  of  every  subject?  We  have  besought  them 
to  convince  our  consciences  by  Scripture.  Alas !  what 
would  they  have  us  to  do  ?  "  ^  Such  submissive  deport- 
ment did  but  embolden  the  insolence  of  power.  Nothing 
short  of  the  total  eradication  of  dissent  would  satisfy  the 
rulers  in  church  and  state.  Dissent  was  not  even  permit- 
ted peaceably  to  betake  itself  to  flight.  A  proclamation 
prohibited  all  persons  from  transporting  them- 
selves to  Virginia,  without  special  license  from 
the  king  ^^  and  it  appears  to  have  been  under  an  author- 
ity professedly  thus  obtained,  that  the  fugitives  of  Scrooby 
were  arrested  in  their  meditated  flight  to  Holland. 

Yet  the  morning  of  King  James's  reign  was  not  one  of 

unbroken  sunshine.     Before  his  predecessor's  death  there 

had  been  tokens  of  the  risin<2r  of  that  cloud  which 

of|M.i,iicHcn-  was  destined  to  darken  his  own  day,  and  burst  in 

liinoiit.  ,  •' 

ruin  on  his  children.  Elizabeth  had  outlived  her 
Aast  popularity.  Thoughts,  threatening,  if  as  yet  unde- 
fined, Avcre  stirred,  by  her  arrogant  obstinacy,  in  the  minds 
of  numbers  of  the  best  of  her  subjects.  After  the  oitecu- 
tiou  of  Lord  Essex,  her  uncontrolled  ill-temper  had  be- 

1  Ncal.IIistor}- of  the  Puritans,  A'ol.         2  i{^^pi„^    History   of   England,    II. 
II.  Cliap.  I.  17G. 


Chap.  VII.]  PURITAN  POLITICS  IN  ENGLAND.  243 

come  a  misery  to  herself  and  a  terror  to  those  about  her 
person.^  Her  death  scarcely  occasioned  a  superficial  and 
transient  sorrow ;  to  those  who  knew  her  best,  it  was 
rather  a  relief  from  gloomy  apprehensions,  both  personal 
and  public.  There  were  now  needed  a  capacity  and  a  res- 
olution at  least  equal  to  her  own,  to  quell  men  who  had 
grown  impatient  of  her  rigid  sway,  and  who  were  not 
incapable  of  being  instructed  by  the  overthrow  of  free 
institutions  in  Spain,  and  their  more  recent  creation  in 
the  Low  Countries. 

It  was  perhaps  unfortunate  for  the  influence  of  James 
with  his  Parliament,  that  it  was  necessary  to  postpone  its 
first  meeting  for  a  year  from  his  accession,  by      jgo^, 
reason  of  an  epidemic  sickness  then  raffinsf  in   '^^'■'^''ig. 

.  /T*      1    •  1  Conduct  of 

London,  which  carried  off  thirty  thousand  per-  jamesathis 
sons,  one  fifth  part  of  the  population.  The  in- 
terval gave  opportunity  for  his  ridiculous  peculiarities  of 
mind,  person,  and  manners  to  make  their  impression,  and 
to  reassure  the  popular  energies,  which  had  almost  learned 
to  confront  the  majestic  severity  of  the  late  sovereign. 
To  whatever  height  his  ulterior  views  aspired,  good  pol- 
icy evidently  recommended  to  him  a  modest  deportment 
on  ascending  the  English  throne.  In  him  it  would  have 
been  graceful  and  conciliating  to  abstain  from  the  present 
assertion  of  claims  which,  of  however  questionable  valid- 
ity, Elizabeth  could  not  perhaps  have  yielded  with  dig- 
nity. But  as,  in  his  treatment  of  the  Millenary  Petition 
and  his  management  of  the  Conference  at  Hampton  Court, 
he  had  lost  the  most  favorable  opportunity  for  harmoniz- 
ing the  Protestant  interests,  so,  on  the  occasion  which 
soonest  presented  itself,  at  his  first  meeting  with  the  great 
council  of  the  realm,  he  gave  alarm  to  the  friends  of  civil 
liberty  by  enormous  pretensions  of  prerogative.^ 

1  Her  godson  Harrington  told  more  2  King  James's  Speech,  in  the  Jour- 

on  this  subject  than  has  got  into  the  nals  of  the  House  of  Commons,  I.  142 

graver  histories.     (Nugae   Antiquae,  I.  - 146. 
317-323.) 


244  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

Parliament,  it  is  true,  responded  in  a  subservient  strain ; 
for  the  vague  expectations  from  a  new  reign  repressed  the 
spirit  of  fault-finding,  and  as  yet  there  was  no 
Proceedings  Organized  opposition  to  utter  a  potent  voice  of 
pariumen't  disscut.  Courtiors,  too,  were  diligent  in  estab- 
at  its  fir.t      lishinff  their  interest  with  the  new  monarch :  and 

•ession.  O  ' 

Cecil,  who  had  to  ratify  by  services  the  peace 
secretly  made  with  him  after  incurring  his  displeasure  by 
the  prosecution  of  the  Earl  of  Essex,  had  great  weight 
with  the  House  of  Commons.  Parliament  passed  what 
was  called  an  "  Act  of  Pecoj^nition,"  in  which, 
overlookmg  earner  precedents  m  English  history, 
as  well  as  that  settlement  in  the  reign  of  Henry  the 
Eighth  in  violation  of  which  James  now  ascended  the 
throne,  they  asserted  that  "  the  imperial  crown  of  the 
realm  of  England  did,  by  inherent  birthright  and  lawful 
and  undoubted  succession,  descend  and  come  to  his  most 
excellent  Majesty,  as  being  lineally,  justly,  and  lawfully 
next  and  sole  heir  of  the  blood  royal  of  the  realm";  — 
language  regarded  by  some  learned  writers  as  the  first 
authoritative  declaration  in  England  of  an  indefeasible 
hereditary  right  belonging  to  its  royal  line.^ 

Yet  even  James's  first  Parliament  did  not  prove  itself 
obsequious  up  to  the  measure  of  his  desire  or  his  expec- 
tation. In  opposition  to  a  clause  in  the  king's  proclama- 
tion for  convoking  them,  the  House  of  Commons  asserted 
witli  some  spirit  their  privilege  of  deciding  on  the  election 
returns.  They  made  bold  to  tell  him,  through  their 
Speaker,  that  "  new  laws  are  to  be  instituted,  imperfect 
laws  reformed,  and  inconvenient  laws  abrogated,  only  by 
the  power  of  the  high  court  of  Parliament,"  —  that  is,  "by 
the  unity  of  the  Commons'  agreement,  the  Lords'  accord, 
and  his  Majesty's  royal  and  legal  assent " ;  that  to  him 
belonged  the  right  "  either  negatively  to  frustrate  or  af- 

'   Ilall.-im,  Constittitional  History  of    era  of  licroditary  right."   (Bolinghroke, 
England,    Chap.    VI.  —  "  This   is   the     Dissertation  on  Parties,  Letter  11.) 


Chap.  VII.]  PURITAN  POLITICS  IN  ENGLAND.  245 

firmatively  to  confirm,  but  not  to  institute."  ^  They  pre- 
sented to  the  House  of  Lords  a  list  of  various  griev- 
ances ;  aniong  others,  the  canons  recently  established  in 
the  Convocation  of  the  Clergy,  They  complained  of  the 
abuses  of  the  ancient  right  of  purveyance^  by  which  car- 
riages and  food  might  be  impressed,  at  insufficient  prices, 
for  the  royal  service.  And  they  were  so  slow  in  preparing 
an  expected  bill  for  a  subsidy,  that  the  king,  apprehensive 
of  their  intending  the  affront  of  withholding  it  altogether, 
sent  a  message  that  he  should  find  no  fault  with  their 
passing  it  by.  They  took  him  at  his  word,  and  vindicated 
their  course  of  proceeding  in  a  vigorous  address,  which 
they  called  "  A  Form  of  Apology  and  Satisfaction  to  be 
delivered  to  his  Majesty."^ 

The  king  had  rated  altogether  too  low  the  power  which 
he  ventured  to  disgust.  It  was  to  a  Parliament,  which, 
with  some  exaggeration,  perhaps,  but  not  without  a  sem- 
blance of  truth,  the  French  ambassador  had  represented 
to  his  court  as  being  "  composed  mostly  of  Puritans,"  that 
the  new  monarch  said,  in  his  opening  speech,  "  I  ac- 
knowledge the  Roman  Church  to  be  our  mother  Church, 
although  defiled  with  some  infirmities  and  corruptions ; 
I  wish  not  the  downthrowing  of  the  temple,  but  that  it 
might  be  purged  and  cleansed  from  corruption " ;  "  the 
Puritans  and  Novelists  "  are  "  a  sect  unable  to  be  suffered 
in  any  well-governed  commonwealth."^  High-born  and 
well-nurtured  men,  who  listened  to  such  a  menace  against 
themselves  and  what  they  regarded  as  the  treasure  of 
divine  truth  in  their  keeping,  could  not  be  expected  to  do 
more  than  suppress  and  suspend  their  discontent.  And 
at  times  it  would  send  out  flashes,  portending  the  confla- 
gration at  hand.  It  was  at  this  session  that,  in  a  con- 
ference of  the  Lords  with  a  committee  of  the  Lofv^er 
House,   the  remarkable  language  was  used :   "  A  people 

1  House  Journal,  I.  146.  3  House  Journal,  I.  144. 

2  Parliamentary  History,  I.  1030. 

21* 


246  IIISTOKY  OF  KEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

may  be  without  a  king  ;  a  king  cannot  be  without  a 
pcopk\"  ^ 

The  next  session  opened  with  the  announcement  of 
the  discovery  and  defeat  of  the  Gunpowder  Plot.     But 

1C05.  even  this  narrow  escape  did  not  so  soften  the 
^*"''^'     hearts  of  the  Commons,  but  that  they  voted  to 

Second  _  _  •'  ^ 

session.  delay  proceeding  to  the  business  of  a  subsidy 
for  the  king's  supply,  till  the  grievances  which  they  had 
presented  should  have  received  consideration.^  Nor  were 
they  likely  to  be  quickened  by  that  clause  in  the  speech 
from  the  throne,  which  declared  "  the  cruelty  of  the  Puri- 
tans worthy  of  fire,  that  will  admit  no  salvation  to  the 
Papists."^  The  question  of  a  legislative  union  with  Scot- 
land, pressed  ineffectually  by  the  king  at  the  previous 
session,  was  again  discussed.'*  His  precipitancy  in  assum- 
ing the  style  of  "  King  of  Great  Britain,"  making  Scotch 
coin  a  legal  tender  in  England  by  proclamation,  quarter- 
ing the  royal  arms  of  Scotland  with  those  of  the  sister 
realm,  and  demolishing  the  gates  of  the  frontier  towns, 
had  occasioned  jealousy  and  irritation.  But  the  real  ques- 
tion, understood,  at  least  on  one  side,  probably  on  both, 
to  lie  at  the  bottom  of  this  discussion,  M'as  that  of  the 
extension  or  confinement  of  the  royal  prerogative.  While 
Parliament  were  intent  on  restricting  or  defining  the  tra- 
ditional rights  of  a  king  of  England,  they  had  no  mind 
to  admit,  with  the  laws  and  customs  of  another  realm,  a 
new  element  of  contradiction  and  uncertainty.  They 
could  not  even  be  prevailed  upon  to  assent  to  the  king's 
doctrine  of  the  naturalization  in  England  of  his  subjects 
born  in  Scotland  after  the  union  of  the  crowns,  implying, 
as  it  did,  that  the  crown  carried  with  it  all  attributes  and 
relations  of  nationality.'^  They  again  presented  a  list  of 
grievances  in  church  and   state,  but  consented  to  make 

1  House  Journal,  I.  15G.  4  l\)\±^  10G9. 

2  I'arliaiiicntary  Illstorj-,  I.  10C9.  5  Hjjj.^  lObl-1009. 

3  Ihid.,  1057. 


Chap.  VII.]  PURITAN  POLITICS  IN  ENGLAND.  247 

a  grant  of  money,  to  the  amount  of  three  suhsidies  and 
six  fifteenths,  or  about  four  hundred  thousand  pounds.-^ 

Inspired  with  a  delusive  confidence  by  this  slow  liberal- 
ity, the  king  urged  his  wishes  in  a  bolder  stram.  In  his 
speech  at  the  next  meeting  with  his  Parliament,  leoe. 
he  advised  them  not  to  be  "  like  Icarus  the  son  Tiiw 
of  Daedalus,  who  soared  so  near  the  sun  with  his  session. 
wings  of  wax,  that  his  wax  melted,  and  his  wings  failed, 
and  down  he  fell."  He  recommended  to  them,  "  if  any 
plebeian  tribunes  should  incur  any  offence,  or  commit  any 
error,  to  correct  them  for  it,  .....  that  the  whole  body 
receive  not  a  wound  by  one  ill  member  thereof"  And 
he  gave  them  to  understand,  that,  if  they  should  prove 
contumacious  in  respect  to  his  favorite  scheme  of  uniting 
the  kingdoms,  he  had  authority  to  carry  it  into  effect 
without  their  aid.^  A  later  speech,  in  which,  complaining 
of  their  obstinacy,  he  told  them  that  after  the  prorogation 
they  would  be  amenable  to  the  courts  of  law,  had  no  ten- 
dency to  close  the  widening  breach.  "  I  am  your  king," 
he  said ;  "  I  am  placed  to  govern  you,  and  shall  answer 
for  your  errors ;  I  am  a  man  of  flesh  and  blood,  and  have 
my  passions  and  affections  as  other  men ;  I  pray  you  do 
not  too  far  move  me  to  do  that  which  my  power  may 

1  A  subsidy  was  a  direct  tax  on  land  "  The  whole   amount  of  a  tenth  and 

or  movables,  of  a  specified  proportion  a  fifteenth  throughout  the  kingdom,  or 

of  their   value,   ■which  proportion  was  a  fifteenth,  as  it  is  often  more  concisely 

different  in  different  levies.    Kffteentli  called,  was  about  twenty-nine  thousand 

meant  a  tax  on  movables  to  the  amount  pounds.      The  amount  of  a  subsidy  was 

of  that  proportion  of  their  rated  worth,  not  invariable,  Uke  that  of  a  fifteenth. 

In  corporate  towns,  the  assessment  was  In  the  eighth  of  Elizabeth,  a  subsidy 

half  as  much  more,  or  a  tenth.     But  amounted  to  one  hundred  and  twenty 

both  fifteenths  and  tenths  were  collected  thousand   pounds  ;   in   the   fortieth,   it 

upon  the  basis  of  an  ancient  valuation,  was  not  above  seventy-eight  thousand ; 

so  that  their  real  was  much  less  than  it  afterwards  fell  to  seventy  thousand, 

their  nominal  amount.      The  estimate,  and  was  continually  decreasing."     Hal- 

in  the  text,  of  the  value  of  three  sub-  lam     (Constitutional    History,     Chap. 

sidles    and    six    fifteenths    is    that    of  VI.)  expresses  the  opinion  that  Hume 

Hume,  who  quotes  for  it  a  speech  of  undervalued  the  suhsidy. 
Lord  Bacon  in   the  House  of  Lords  2  Parliamentary   History,  I.    1072- 

(Chap.  XLVI.)     Hume  says  elsewhere  1074. 
(Appendix  to  the  Reign  of  James  I.)  : 


Feb.  9 
Fourth 
session, 


04.8  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND,  [Book  I. 

tempt  me  imto."^  Some  years  earlier,  such  language, 
from  the  lips  of  the  daughter  of 

"  the  majestic  lord 
That  broke  the  bonds  of  Rome," 

might  have  intimidated.  From  those  of  her  "slobbering" 
cousin,  it  could  only  exasperate  and  estrange.  The  feel- 
ing of  the  Lower  House  was  significantly  expressed  by 
its  passing  a  bill  making  void  all  ecclesiastical  canons 
adopted  by  the  Convocation  without  the  consent  of  Parlia- 
ment, even  though  they  should  be  ratified,  as  those  of  the 
recent  Convocation  had  been,  by  the  king's  letters-patent 
under  the  great  seal. 

The  next  meeting  of  Parliament  (previous  to  which 
the  humble  flock  of  Robinson,  smarting  under  their  own 

icio.  griefs,  but  little  knowing  the  signs  in  the  upper 
political  sky,  had  escaped  to  Holland)  was  post- 
poned as  long  as  the  necessities  of  the  treasury 
allowed.  The  opponents  of  the  court  — 'the  Country 
Interest^  as  they  began  to  be  called  —  came  together  in  a 
more  determined  mood,  Avith  increased  mutual  confidence 
and  more  definite  conceptions  of  the  common  object. 
Cecil,  now  Earl  of  Salisbury  and  prime  minister,  told  the 
House  of  Commons,  when  he  asked  a  supply,  that  "  it  was 
a  mark  of  esteem  which  could  not  be  denied  to  a  king, 
wlio  was  not  only  the  wisest  of  kings,  but  the  very  image 
of  an  angel."  But  they  took  time  to  consider,  and  pro- 
ceeded first  to  the  question  of  the  public  grievances.  A 
message  of  disapprobation  from  the  king  was  delivered 
by  the  Speaker,  who  in  reply  received  a  reprimand  from 
the  House 'for  his  officiousness.  A  royal  speech,  full  of 
high-prerogative  doctrines,  drew  out  a  vigorous  address 
in  assertion  of  the  rights  of  the  Commons  of  England  and 
of  their  representatives  in  Parliament.^  A  negotiation  was 
entered  into,  proposing  so  much  annual  revenue  on  one 
side,  for  so  much  relinquishment  of  doubtful  or  oficnsive 

1  House  Juurnal,  1.  3G7,  3G8.  2  Ibid.,  430,  431. 


Chap.  VII.]  PURITAN  POLITICS  IN  ENGLAND.  249 

claims  upon  the  other.     But  the  parties  could  not  agree 
upon  terms,  and  the  undertaking  proved  abortive,  a  pro- 
rogation being  ordered  as  soon  as  the  king  had  secured 
himself  for  the  present  by  obtaining  the  scanty  grant  of  a 
hundred  thousand  pounds.^      His  recent  experience  had 
not  encouraged  him  to  hope  anything  from  this  piftj, 
Parliament ;  and  after  another  short  session,  in  ^''^''°°' 
which  it  discovered  no  easier  temper,  it  was  dis- 
solved in  its  seventh  year.     The  dissolution  was  rariiument 
hastened  by  disgust  conceived  by  the  king  at  a 
petition  of  the  House  of  Commons  for  the  relief  of  Puri- 
tan ministers  from  the  obligations  of  subscription  and  of 
conformity   to    the   ceremonies,    and    at   a   remonstrance 
against  not  only  the  oppressions,  but  the  jurisdiction,  of 
the  High-Commission  Court.     Among  other  matters  of 
complaint  were  the  royal  pretension  to  give  to  proclama- 
tions the  force  of  law ;  the  issue  of  patents  of  monopoly ; 
and  some  trifling  impositions,  by  the  crown,  of  duties  on 
foreign  merchandise,  chiefly  important  for  the  precedent 
they  might  establish. 

The  tone  of  the  House  of  Commons  aflforded  a  partial 
indication  of  the  progress  of  popular  principles  in  the 
nation  at  large,  and  not  least  in  the  circles  of  intelligence 
and  rank.  On  the  other  side  were  the  courtiers,  state  of  opin- 
the   Hifrh-Churchmen,    and    the   lesral  tribunals,  '""^m""? 

*-'  '-'  the  courtiers 

The  Common-Law  courts,  however,  were  far  from  ^"^  ^^^  J^^- 
being  uniformly  sycophantic.  Though  not  sel- 
dom biassed,  and  sometimes  even  corrupted,  by  power,  the 
instincts  of  legal  science  have  always  been  among  the 
main  safeguards  of  the  liberties  of  the  English  race.  The 
king,  indeed,  obtained  the  opinion  of  the  judges,  that  "the 
deprivation  of  Puritan  ministers  by  the  High-Commission- 
ers, for  refusing  to  conform  to  the  ceremonies  appointed 
by  the  last  canons,  was  lawful,"   and  that  the  framing  of 

1  "  One  subsidy  and  one  fifteenth,  dred  thousand  pounds."  (Hume,  Chap. 
which  would  scarcely  amount  to  a  hua-     XLVI.) 


250  HISTORY  OF  KEW  ENGLAJfD.  [Book  I. 

petitions  "  as  the  Puritans  had  done,  with  an  intimation 
to  the  king  that,  if  he  denied  their  suit,  many  thousands 
of  his  subjects  would  be  discontented,  was  an  offence 
finable  at  discretion,  and  very  near  to  treason  and  felony 
in  the  punishment ;  for  it  tended  to  the  raising  sedition, 
rebellion,  and  discontent  among  the  people."-^  But,  on 
the  other  hand,  when  the  arrogant  archbishop,  in  what 
were  called  the  Artlculi   Cleri.  claimed  for  the 

1605. 

ecclesiastical  courts  jurisdiction  independent  of 
that  of  the  Courts  of  King's  Bench  and  Common  Pleas, 
the  judges,  under  the  lead  of  Sir  Edward  Coke,  repelled 
and  silenced  the  pretension.     And  at  a  later  period  they 

informed  the  monarch,  throuo^h  the  same  great 

ICIO.  .        .  'Ob 

jurist,  that  he  could  not  by  proclamation  create 
any  new  offence,  and  that  he  possessed  no  prerogative 
whatever  except  by  the  law  of  the  land.~ 

The  ecclesiastics  of  the  Iligh-Church  party,  nursing  the 
follies  of  the  king,  were  unconsciously  the  main  agents  in 
Highprerog-  Icadiug  ou  liis  family  to  its  destruction,  and  his 
"ixuLluhQ  subjects  to  their  higher  destinies.  The  canons 
Church.  framed  by  the  Convocation  had  inculcated  the 
obligation  of  unlimited  obedience  to  the  sovereign.  One 
Blackwood,  a  clergyman,  published  a  book,  in  which  he 
maintained,  that,  by  virtue  of  the  Conquest  in  the 
eleventh  century,  William  of  Normandy  and  his 
heirs  were  absolute  and  unrestricted  masters  of  the  realm 
of  England;  and  Cowell,  vicar-general  to  Bancroft,  in  a 
"  Law  Dictionary,"  dedicated  to  that  prelate  and  under- 
stood to  be  produced  under  his  auspices,  asserted  the 
doctrines,  that  "  the  king  is  above  the  law  by  his  absolute 
power,"  and  that  "  he  may  alter  or  suspend  any  particular 
law  that  secmeth  hurtful  to  the  public  estate."    The  House 

1  Neal,  PuriUins,  Vol.  II.  Chap.  I.  James  for  tolling  Iiim  that  "his  Iligh- 

2  Lord  Cami)bcll,  Lives  of  the  Chief  ness  -vvas  tlcfciuled  by  his  laws."  Ilis 
Justices,  Chap.  VIII.  —  At  another  time,  Highness  told  him  that  "he  spoke  fool- 
tlnj  Chief  Ju-licc,  liul  "a  very  sharp  ishly,  and  said  that  he  was  not  defend- 
reprehcuhion  "  adiuiai.-ilerciJ  to  hiiu  by  cd  by  his  laws,  but  by  God." 


Chap.  VII.]  PURITAN  TOLITICS  IN  ENGLAND.  251 

of  Commons  took  high  offence,  and  asked  a  conference 
with  the  Lords,  when  James  was  prudent  enough  to  parry 
their  resentment  by  a  proclamation  forbidding  the  circula- 
tion of  the  book. 

The  king's  experience  for  six  years  had  naturally  disgust- 
ed him  with  Parliaments,  and  his  mind  was  inclining  to 
.  expedients  for  governing  without  them.  It  was  not  easy 
to  dispense  with  their  provisions  for  the  treasury ;  but,  on 
the  other  hand,  the  doctrine  that  supplies  for  the  service 
of  the  crown  are  a  voluntary  grant  of  the  Commons,  was 
by  no  means  yet  cleared  from  all  uncertainty.  The  "  Act 
for  a  Subsidy  of  Tonnage  and  Poundage,"  customary  at 
the  beginning  of  a  reign,  and  giving  the  new  monarch 
authority  for  life  to  collect  certain  customs,  had  been 
passed  at  the  first  session  of  the  preceding  Parliament. 
James  had  exceeded  the  power  therein  conferred,  ,      . .     , 

■•■  Imposition  of 

by  layino:  an  additional  duty  of  five  shillings  a  'I'lg;^'  duties 
hundred-weight  on  imported  currants.    A  London 
merchant,  named  Bates,  contested   the  payment 

.  '  .  ^      •'  1C05. 

at  law.     The  question,  of  which  the  momentous 
significance  Avas  already  apparent  to  some  minds,  having 
been  adjudged  in  the  Court  of  Exchequer  in  favor  of  the 
crown,  James  proceeded,  in  what  was  called  the  "  Book  of 
Rates,"   to  impose  duties,  by  his  own  authority,     jeos. 
on  various  articles  of  merchandise.     These  impo-     •'"'^* 
sitions,  after  receiving  some  cursory  attention  at  an  earlier 
time,  had  been  vigorously  protested  against  in  the  last 
session  but  one  of  the  recent  Parliament ;  but  a  bill  which 
the  House  of  Commons  had  been  bold  enough  to  pass  for 
correcting  the  abuse,  had  been  thrown  out  by  the  Peers. 

For  the  next  ten  years,  there  was  scarcely  anything  of 
the  nature  of  legislative  action  to  denote  the  tendencies 
of  thouijht  in   Ens^land.     Only    one  Parliament  ^ 

•-''--'  "^  Discontinu- 

was  convoked ;  it  sat  only  two  months,  and  enact-  ^"^6  of  Par- 

1  '1-1  T  1  r   ^    •  liaiiients. 

ed  not  a  single  law.     in  the  poverty  oi  his  ex- 
chequer, it  might  have  seemed  natural  for  the  king  to  add 


Qo2  HISTORY   OF  KEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

to  those  illegal  exactions  from  commerce  which,  notwith- 
standing the  discontent  they  had  occasioned,  had  escaped 
rebuke  from  the  estates  of  the  kingdom.  But  it  seems 
that,  after  all  his  bluster,  his  courage  was  not  equal  to 
the  continuance  of  the  experiment,  or  that  more  prudent 
counsels  on  the  part  of  those  about  him  prevailed.  Such 
expedients  as  a  public  lottery,  excessive  fines  in' 

Expedients  *^  ■*•  *' 

to  obtain  a  flic  Court  of  Star-Cliambcr,  and  the  sale  of  timber 
from  the  crown  forests,  of  monopolies,  of  investi- 
tures of  baronetcy  and  knighthood,  and  of  patents  of  no- 
bility, afforded  an  inadequate  supply.  In  the  existing 
state  of  the  public  mind,  that  fear  of  royal  vengeance 
which  in  former  times  had  made  benevolences  a  convenient 
resource,  could  no  longer  be  so  much  relied  upon.  Crown 
lands  were  set  up  for  sale,  but  found  no  purchasers,  from 
distrust  of  the  goodness  of  the  title;  and  the  Corporation 
of  London  refused  to  lend  money. 

During  the  ten  years  of  this  unsatisfactory  provision 
for  the  public  expenses,  the  king's  reluctance  to  meet  a 
Parliament  was  once  overcome  by  an  engagement  of  some 
of  his  courtiers,  thence  called  undertakers,  so  to  manage 
the  elections  as  to  return  a  House  of  Commons  favorable 
to  prerogative.  From  the  moment  when  the  Houses  as- 
sembled, it  was  manifest  that  the  scheme  had 
April  15.     failed.     "  I  protest,"  he  said,  when  he  met  them. 

Proceedings  of  ,,  Tin  •,  kt       '     i  j~^      •%         i 

King  James's  as  i  suali  auswer  it  to  Almighty  God,  that  my 
«jcond  Pariia-  intcgHty  ig  Hko  tho  whiteucss  of  my  robe,  my 
purity  like  the  metal  of  gold  in  my  crown,  my 
firmness  and  clearness  like  the  precious  stones  I  wear, 
and  my  affections  natural  like  the  redness  of  my  heart." ^ 
They  endured  his  rhetoric,  and  took  time  to  consider  his 
demands.  They  disputed  the  right  of  his  Attorney-General, 
Sir  Francis  Bacon,  to  a  seat  in  the  House,  and  only  con- 
ceded it  Avitli  a  proviso  that  it  should  not  be  a  precedent 
for  incumbents  of  the  same  office  in  future  Parliaments. 

1  Parliamentary  Ilistorj-,  I.  1150. 


Chap.  VII.]  PURITAN  TOLITICS  IN  ENGLAND.  253 

One  of  the  undertakers  was  expelled  for  tampering  with 
the  recent  elections.  A  resolve  against  the  king's  power 
of  imposing  taxes  was  now  carried  by  a  unanimous  vote  ;  a 
remarkable  homage,  apparently,  to  an  aroused  public  feel- 
ing. A  full  list  of  grievances  was  prepared,  the  severities 
exercised  towards  Non-conformists  being  prominent  among 
them ;  and  the  whole  course  of  proceeding  indicated  that 
the  consideration  of  these  would  have  precedence  of  any 
grant  of  money,  though  it  was  known  that  the  king  was 
more  than  a  million  of  pounds  in  debt.  Neale,  Bishop 
of  Lincoln,  having  in  debate  reflected  on  the  policy  of  the 
Commons,  that  body  sent  up  a  message  complaining  of 
the  insult,  and  were  only  appeased  by  a  reply  from  the 
Lords  that  the  Bishop  had  disavowed,  with  prayers  and 
tears,  all  intention  of  the  kind  imputed.  After  a  dissolu- 
tion, by  which  James  relieved  himself  from  the 

.  .  .  Juno  17. 

vexation  of  a  hopeless  contest,  he  gratified  his 
spleen  by  sending  some  of  the  leading  patriots  to  the 
Tower ;  but  good  advice  prevailed  with  him  speedily  to 
release  them,  and  the  outrage  had  no  other  effect  than  to 
produce  an  exasperation,  which  encouraged  a  still  more 
prompt  and  steady  refusal  of  benevolences. 

The  financial  exigencies  were  now  greater  than  ever. 
A  temporary  supply  was   obtained  by  a  measure  which 
added    another   weight   to   the  king's  burden   of  surrenderor 
unpopularity.     A  sum  of  money,  lent  by  Eliza-  cau,t'!,aljr 
beth  to  the  Netherlanders  in  their  insurrection  *°'''"^' 
against    Spain,    had    been    secured    to    England    by    the 
occupation    of    what    were   called    the   cautionari/    toiv?is. 
Flushing,  the  Brille,  and  Rammekins.     The  Grand  Pen- 
sioner, Barne veldt,   saw  the  advantage  of  the  time,  and 
easily  induced  James  to  surrender  the  towns  for 
a  payment  of  two  hundred  and   fifty  thousand 
pounds,  about  one  third  of  the  amount  due.     With  this 
help,  added  to  his  permanent  means,  he  struggled  on  a 
few  years  more.     But  at  length  further  supplies  seemed 

VOL.  I.  22 


254  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

indispensable,  and  again  the  unwelcome  expedient  of  a 
Parliament  was  perforce  adopted. 

Tlic  impulse  which  moved  all  this  energetic  resistance 
was  too  obvious  to  escape  even  the  king's  slow  percep- 
tions ;  at  all  events,  it  was  too  apparent  to  elude  the 
notice  of  his  ministers.  Protestant  religion  was  educating 
the  English  people  for  civil  liberty.  "  Plead  not,"  said 
James  in  the  Star-Chamber,  "  upon  Puritanical  principles, 
which  make  all  things  popular,  but  keep  within  the  an- 
cient limits."  Puritanism  experienced  (as  for  its  best 
training  it  needed)  the  alternate  discipline,  on  the  part 
of  the  court,  of  extreme  and  of  relaxed  severity.  The 
hardship  brought  it  to  try  and  understand  its  power; 
the  relaxation  helped  it  to  advance  its  claims,  and  gain 
a  stronger  position  for  the  next  contest.  Archbishop 
icio.  Bancroft  died  just  at  the  time  of  the  dissolution 
Nov.  2.     Qf  James's  first  Parliament.     Plis  six  years'  ad- 

Death  of  -^ 

Arriiiii^hop    ministration  was  terribly  harsh,  and  not  unskilful 

liancroft.  „         .  i  1      • 

for  its  purpose ;  though  it  was  a  mere  exaggera- 
tion of  Lord  Clarendon  to  say  that  "  he  had  almost  rescued 

the  Church  out  of  the  hands  of  the  Calvinian  party, 

and,  if  he  had  lived,  would  quickly  have  extinguished  all 
that  fire  in  England  which  had  been  kindled  at  Geneva."^ 
If  non-conformity  was  restrained,  discontent  was  not  at  all 
abated.  Perhaps  it  was  even  extended,  by  a  natural  re- 
pugnance to  coercion  in  many  minds  of  that  sort  which 
attaches  little  importance  to  theories. 

The  successor  of  Bancroft  in  the  primacy  was  Dr. 
George  Abbot,  previously  Bishop  of  Lichfield  and  Cov- 
Lcnityand  <^ntry,  aud  thcn  of  London.  A  weakness  of  the 
ruritanicai     j-jj^^^  scrvcd,   at   this   critical  iuncture,  the  Puri- 

tciiileiicies  of  O  '  J  ' 

Arri.bi«imp     tan  and  popular  cause.     Nothing  was  more  im- 
portant to  his   objects  than  the  aid  of  an  arch- 
bishop, enterprising,  courageous,  and  severe,  a  bigot  to  the 
state  religion  and  to  the  royal  prerogative.     To  oblige,  it 

1  Clarendon,  History  of  the  Rebellion,  Book  I. 


Chap.  VII.]  PURITAN  POLITICS  IN  ENGLAND.  255 

is  said,  one  of  his  favorites,  the  Earl  of  Dunbar,  he 
selected  for  this  momentous  trust  a  churchman  of  benevo- 
lent temper,  of  indolent  habits,  and  in  sentiment  (if  his 
enemies  told  the  truth)  a  semi-Puritan.  Abbot  speedily- 
showed  himself  inclined  to  no  further  strictness  in  en- 
forcing the  discipline  of  the  Church,  and  obedience  to  the 
Articles  and  Canons,  than  was  required  by  express  ob- 
ligation, or  the  obvious  decencies  of  his  place;  and  his 
inert  and  indulgent  administration  emboldened  the  Non- 
conformists as  much  as  it  embarrassed  and  annoyed  the 
king.  The  Archbishop  was  charged  with  a  signal  in- 
stance of  disaffection,  in  forbidding  the  promulgation,  at 
a  residence  of  his  in  Lancashire,  of  a  royal  proclamation 
for  the  encouragement  of  Sunday  sports  and  recreations. 
Papists  abounded  in  Lancashire,  and  it  had  been  ordered 
that  the  proclamation  should  be  read  in  all  the  churches 
of  that  county. 

The  occasion  for  convening  the  next  Parliament  had  a 
relation  to  foreign  politics.     James  had  espoused  Foreign 
his  eldest  child,  the  Princess  Elizabeth,  to  Fred-  ofEngUnd. 
eric.  Count  Palatine  of  the  Rhine.     The  Protes-      ^^^^• 
tants  of  Bohemia,  in   arms   against  their  sovereign,   of- 
fered the  crown  to  Frederic,  who,  accepting  the 

i-  O  2619. 

doubtful  boon,  became  immediately  involved  in  a 
war  against  a  league  of  Catholic  princes  of  the  empire. 
They  not  only  dispossessed  him  of  his  ephemeral  throne 
in  Bohemia,  but  overran  his  patrimonial  posses- 

■  111*  1  1  1620. 

sions,  and  drove  mm  to  seek  an  asylum  m  the 
Low  Countries.  The  religious  sympathies  of  Englishmen 
were  naturally  enlisted  in  his  behalf  James  did  not  share 
in  them.  He  had  watched  the  whole  proceeding  of  his 
son-in-law  with  apprehension  and  displeasure.  He  prided 
himself  on  his  pacific  disposition.  His  high  notions  of 
prerogative  forbade  him  to  countenance  insurgents ;  and 
the  course  of  Frederic  embarrassed  his  negotiation  with 
the  king  of  Spain,  long  pursued  with  a  fond  solicitude, 


2oG  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

for  the  marriage  of  an  Infanta  with  his  son.  The  most 
he  could  be  prevailed  upon  to  do,  by  the  clamor  which 
surrounded  him,  was  to  send  four  thousand  volunteers  on 
an  unavailing  enterprise  to  protect  the  authority  and 
person  of  Frederic  in  his  inherited  dominions. 

This  charge  he  had  been  able  to  meet  by  the  proceeds 
of  a  voluntary  contribution  of  some  of  the  more  zealous 
English  Protestants,  and  of  a  loan  on  usurious  interest. 
The  general  enthusiasm  was  wrought  up  to  a  higher  pitch 
by  Frederic's  overthrow;  and  the  ministry  advised  their" 
master  to  profit  by  it  to  obtain  the  supplies  of  money  of 
which  he  was  desperately  in  want.  It  -was  with  much 
difficulty  that  they  brought  him  to  that  step,  and  per- 
suaded him  to  disarm  the  contumacious  spirit  which  he 
dreaded,  by  proposing  some  not  costly  concessions  of  points 
hitherto  in  dispute. 

In  his  speech  at  the  opening  of  his  third  Parliament, 
he  bewailed  the  little  influence  which  hitherto  he  had 

jj.<,j      been  able  to  exert  over  the  public  deliberations. 

Jan.  30.     u  J  j^^y  trulv,"  Said  he,  "  say  I  have  often  piped 

King  James's  J  J  ^  ^  J  i     1 

third  I'ariia-   uuto  you,  but  you  have  not  danced ;  I  have  often 


incnt 


mourned,  but  you  have  not  lamented." '  He  com- 
pared his  condition,  on  account  of  his  accumulated  necessi- 
ties, to  an  approach  to  the  time  of  parturition ;  "only,"  he 
said,  "  instead  of  months,  myself  have  gone  ten  years,  and 
therefore  it  is  full  time  that  I  should  be  delivered  of  my 
wants."  He  complained  of  the  uncharitable  constructions 
which  had  been  put  upon  his  conduct.  He  unfolded  some 
of  his  plans  of  economy,  executed  and  projected.  He  vin- 
dicated his  apparent  lukewarmness  in  the  cause  of  his 
son-in-law,  and  of  Protestantism  on  the  Continent.  He 
left  "  to  the  Jesuits  to  make  religion  a  cause  to  take  away 
crowns";  and  he  professed  himself  "not  a  fit  judge,  for 
they  might  say,  as  one  said  to  Moses,  '  AVho  made  thee  a 
judge  over  us  T  "     Finally  he  enacted  the  coaxing  parent : 

'  rarliamcntary  History,  I.  1176. 


Chap.  VII.]  PURITAN  POLITICS  IN  ENGLAND.  257 

"  How  happy  a  fame  will  it  be,  that  I  am  reverenced  by 
my  people,  and  reciprocally  love  them !  How  shall  I  be 
honored  by  my  neighbor  princes  !  " 

The  courtiers  pressed  for  immediate  supplies ;  but  the 
House  of  Commons  understood  its  position  and  took  its 
time.     After  some  measures  for  the  further  restraint  of 
Popish  recusants,  it  represented  to  the  king  the 
breach  of  its  privileges  in  the  imprisonment  of 
members  at  the  close  of  the  last  Parliament.     James  re- 
plied with  an  earnest  protestation  of  his  purpose 
to  maintain  liberty  of  speech,  and  was  immedi- 
ately rewarded  with  a  grant  of  two  subsidies,  or 

•'      *  ^  Feb.  16. 

about  a  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  pounds,  an 
extremely  measured  liberality,  which,  however,  he  deemed 
it  prudent  to  recognize  as  a  token  of  restored  good  under- 
standing. 

The  House  next  turned  its  attention  to  an  abuse  which 
had  grown  up,  consisting  in  grants  of  monopolies  by  royal 
patent.     There  was  one  for  the  licensino:  of  inns : 

■••  _  o  '     Proceedings 

another  for  the  exclusive  manufacture  of  gold  and  against 
silver  lace.  The  patentees,  who  were  knights, 
were  sentenced  by  the  Lords  to  imprisonment,  heavy  fines, 
and  degradation  from  their  order ;  and  the  king  was  fain 
to  conceal  his  chagrin,  and  even  to  increase  the  severity 
of  their  punishments,  under  the  pretence  that  they  had 
imposed  upon  him  by  false  representations. 

The   Chancellor,    Sir    Francis    Bacon,    now    Viscount 
St.  Albans,  had  rendered  himself  odious  by  the  prostitu- 
tion of  his  vast  genius  to  the  mercenary  service  of  impeach- 
the  court.     The  Commons  revived  an  ancient  right  st^  Aibans. 
of  theirs  by  impeaching  him  before  the  Upper    ^'^^^* 
House  for  bribery  and  corruption.     He  made  a  full  con- 
fession, and  was  sentenced  to  pay  a  fine  of  forty  thousand 
pounds,  to  be  imprisoned  during  the  king's  pleasure,  and 
to  be  incapable  of  sitting  in  Parliament,  or  holding  any 
place  of  trust  or  profit.     Other  cases  of  impeachment,  of 

22* 


058  HISTORY  OF  KEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

inferior  importance,  showed  the  confident  temper  which 
possessed  the  grand  inquest  of  the  realm. 

The  king  became  uneasy.     Four  months'  deliberation 
had  brought  the  hoped-for  supplies  no  nearer.     He  in- 
formed the  Houses  by  message,  that  he  intended  their 
present  session  should  last  only  another  week.     He  kept 
his  word,  and  the  parties  separated  with  less  mu- 
tual satisfaction  than  ever. 
During  the  recess,  which  lasted  five  months,  the  two 
popular  leaders,  Coke  and  Sandys,  were  molested  by  a 
prosecution,  ostensibly  for  official  misdemeanors.     When 
Parliament  again  came  together,  the  sergeant-at-arms  was 
ordered  to  take  the  accusers  of  Coke  into  cus- 

Nov.  14. 

tody,  and  measures  were  adopted  to  establish  the 
charge  of  a  conspiracy  on  their  part  against  him,  in  re- 
venge for  the  part  which  he  had  taken  in  the  House. 
As  to  Sandys,  the  king  declared  that  he  had  not  punished 
him  for  anything  done  in  his  place  in  Parliament,  but  at 
the  same  time  vindicated  his  right  to  do  so  at  his  dis- 
cretion. 

This  dispute  was  eminently  inauspicious  to  future  har- 
mony. The  House  lost  no  time  in  drawing  up  a  petition, 
Increase  of  ^^  which,  amoug  othcr  things,  they  prayed  that  an 
dissension     amiv  mi^flit  be  forthwith  desi^atched  to  Germany, 

between  the  .  . 

king  and  the  aud  that  tlic  heir  apparent  might  be  betrothed  to 
a  Protestant  princess.  Nothing  could  exceed  the 
bewildered  exasperation  of  the  king,  on  being  informed  of 
this  proceeding.  "  We  have  heard,"  he  said  in  a  letter  to 
the  Speaker,  "  by  divers  reports,  to  our  great  grief,  that 
our  distance  from  the  Houses  of  Parliament,  caused  by 
our  indisposition  of  health,  hath  emboldened  some  fiery 
and  popular  spirits  of  some  of  the  House  of  Commons  to 
argue  and  debate  publicly  matters  far  above  their  reach 
and  capacity,  tending  to  our  high  dishonor,  and  breach  of 
prerogative  royal.  These  are  therefore  to  command  you 
to  make  known,  in  our  name,  unto  the  House,  that  none 


Chap.  VII.]  PURITAN  POLITICS  IN  ENGLAND.  259 

therein  shall  presume  henceforth  to  meddle  with  any- 
thing concerning  our  government  or  mysteries  of  state  ; 
namely,  not  to  speak  of  our  dearest  son's  match  with  the 
daughter  of  Spain,  nor  to  touch  the  honor  of  that  king, 

or  any  other  our  friends  and  confederates And  if 

they  have  already  touched  any  of  these  points,  which  we 
have  here  forbidden,  in  any  petition  of  theirs  which  is 
to  be  sent  unto  us,  it  is  our  pleasure  that  you  shall  tell 
them,  that,  except  they  reform  it  before  it  comes  to  our 
hands,  we  will  not  deign  the  hearing  or  answering  of  it."-^ 

The  House  replied  by  a  new  remonstrance,  respectful 
in  language,  but  in  a  tone  of  unprecedented  firmness. 
They  repeated  their  dissuasion  from  the  Spanish  match, 
and  their  recommendation  of  a  Continental  policy  of  oppo- 
sition to  the  Catholic  interest ;  they  asserted  their  privilege 
to  advise  the  crown  on  all  occasions  which  to  their  judg- 
ments should  seem  fit ;  and  they  claimed  in  the  most  un- 
qualified terms,  as  an  inheritance  from  their  ancestors,  a 
right  to  freedom  of  debate,  and  an  exclusive  right  to  pun- 
ish any  member  who  should  abuse  that  freedom.- 

The  king's  reply  helped  on  the  quarrel.  "  We  cannot 
allow,"  he  said,  "  of  your  style  in  mentioning  your  an- 
cient and  undoubted  right  and  inheritance,  but  could 
rather  have  wished  that  ye  had  said  that  your  privileges 
were  derived  from  the  grace  and  permission  of  our  ances- 
tors and  us ;  for  most  of  them  grow  from  precedents, 
which  shows  rather  a  toleration  than  inheritance."  "  The 
difference  is  no  greater  in  your  pretending  to  advise  us  on 
our  reasons  for  demanding  a  supply,  than  if  we  should  tell 
a  merchant  that  we  had  great  need  to  borrow  money  from 
him  for  raising  an  army,  that  thereupon  it  would  follow 
that  we  were  bound  to  follow  his  advice  in  the  direction 
of  the  war,  and  all  things  depending  thereupon."  "  And 
touching  your  excuse  of  not  determining  anything  con- 
cerning the  match  of  our  dearest  son,  but  only  to  tell  your 

1  Parliamentary  History,  I.  1326,  1327.  2  jbid.,  1333-1336. 


260  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

opinion,  and  lay  it  down  at  our  feet,  first,  we  desire  to 
know,  how  you  could  have  presumed  to  determine  in  that 
point,  without  committing  of  high  treason  ;  and  next,  you 
cannot  deny  but  your  talking  of  his  match  after  that 
manner  was  a  direct  breach  of  our  commandment  and 
declaration  out  of  our  own  mouth."  ^ 

Apprehending  a  speedy  dissolution,  the  House  of  Com- 
mons caused  to  be  entered  upon  their  Journal  a  Protesta- 
tion, conceived   in   firm   but  measured  and  tem- 

rrotestation 

of  the  House  perate  language,  in  which  were  incorporated  the 
pretensions  that  had  been  brought  into  contro- 
versy. The  king,  hearing  of  it,  came  to  London  in  a 
rage,  sent  for  the  Journal  book,  and  tore  from  it  the 
Protestation  with  his  own  hand.  He  then  prorogued  the 
Dissolution  Parliament;  and,  in  the  proclamation  by  which 
of  tiie  third    ^i^gy  were  soon  after  dissolved  he  made  known 

Parliament.  • 

1(22.  hig  reasons  for  that  course,  alleging  himself  to 
have  been  enforced  to  it  "by  the  undutiful  behav- 
ior of  the  Lower  House."  Lastly,  he  indulged  his  resent- 
ment by  committing  to  the  Tower,  to  the  Fleet,  and  other 
prisons,  some  of  the  most  conspicuous  opposition  members, 
among  them  Sir  Edward  Coke,  from  whose  masculine  un- 
derstanding the  free  spirit  of  the  Common  Law  had  now 
fully  prevailed  to  root  out  the  severity  of  his  earlier  pre- 
dilections. No  act  had  been  passed  at  this  session  except 
an  act  for  a  grant  of  two  subsidies.  An  incidental  indica- 
tion of  the  Puritan  spirit  which  prevailed  was  the  expul- 
sion of  a  member  of  the  Lower  House,  for  maintaining, 
in  the  debate  upon  a  bill  for  the  stricter  observance  of 
Sunday,  that  that  day  was  erroneously  identified  with  the 
Jewish  Sabbath,  and  that  relaxations  and  sports  did  not 
profane  it.  In  this  Parliament,  for  the  first  time  since  the 
Reformation,  several  distinguished  noblemen  placed  them- 
selves in  opposition  to  the  court.  They  were  the  first 
fruits  of  a  large  secession. 

1  Parliamentary  Historj-,  I.  1338-1344. 


Chap.  VII.]         PURITAN  POLITICS  IN  ENGLAND.  261 

The  freedom  with  which  political  affairs  were  now  can- 
vassed is  evinced  by  the  royal  proclamations,  repeatedly 
issued,  to  prohibit  "  excess  of  lavish  speech  of  matters  of 
state,"  and  the  "  disorderly  printing,  uttering,  and  dispersing 
of  seditious.  Popish,  and  Puritanical  books  and  pamphlets."  ^ 

The  definitive  failure  of  the  long-protracted  negotiation 
with  Spain  for  the  marriage  of  the  Prince  of  Wales,  as  it 
involved  the  loss  of  the  dowry  which  had  been  expected 
with  the  Infanta,  presented  an  inducement  to  James  for 
the  convocation  of  another  Parliament.  At  the  same 
time  it  promised  a  better  mutual  understanding,  now 
that  Parliament  would  be  relieved  of  its  apprehensions 
of  Spain  and  Romanism.  The  event  corre-  Kingjames's 
sponded  to  that  promise.  The  new  views  of  '^'"""'  ^"''^" 
the  favorite,  Buckinojham,  who,  since  his  breach     '^24. 

Feb.  12. 

with  the  Spanish  court,  had  been  in  communica- 
tion with  the  Puritan  leaders,  gave  a  tone  to  the  king's 
opening  speech.  "  The  properties  and  causes  of  calling  a 
Parliament,"  he  said,  "  are  to  confer  with  the  king,  and 
give  him  their  advice  in  matters  of  greatest  weight  and 
importance " ;  and  he  solicited  their  counsel  respecting 
his  relations  to  Spain.  "  For  matters  of  privileges,  liber- 
ties, and  customs,"  said  he,  "  be  not  over  curious.  I  am 
your  own  kindly  king.  Ye  never  shall  find  me  curious 
in  these  things.  Therefore,  do  what  you  ought,  and  no 
more  than  your  lawful  liberties  and  privileges  will  per- 
mit, and  ye  shall  never  see  me  curious  to  the  contrary. 
I  had  rather  maintain  your  liberties,  than  alter  them  in 
anything.  Show  a  trust  in  me,  and  go  on  honestly  as  ye 
ought  to  do,  like  good  and  faithful  subjects  ;  and  what 
you  have  warrant  for,  go  on  with,  and  I  will  iiot  be 
curious,  unless  you  give  me  too  much  cause."  ^  The 
Speaker,  one  of  those  who  had  fallen  under  the  royal 
displeasure  in  the  last  Parliament,  replied  in  loyal  terms, 
taking  care,  however,  to  make  prominent  the  importance 

J  Rymer,  Fcedera,  XVII.  275,522,        2  Parliamentary   History,  I.   1373- 
616.  1376. 


2(52  msTORY  OF  new  England.  [Book  l 

of  some  bills  which  had  failed  through  the  late  dissolu- 
tion, and  the  propriety  of  the  king's  depending  on  his 
Parliament  for  supplies. 

The  account  which  Buckingham  gave  of  the  perfidy  of 
the  Spanish  court  added  a  profound  sense  of  insult  to  the 
displeasure  with  which  the  alliance  had  always  been 
viewed  by  the  Puritan  patriots.  The  Houses  united  in  a 
declaration  to  the  king,  that,  on  the  dissolution  of  the 
treaties,  they  would  "be  ready  in  a  Parliamentary  man- 
ner, with  their  persons  and  abilities,  to  assist  him."  ^  De- 
lighted with  this  novel  cordiality,  he  asked  a  grant  of  five 
subsidies  and  ten  fifteenths  to  meet  the  expenses  of  a  war, 
besides  an  annual  allowance  of  one  subsidy  and  two  fif- 
teenths for  the  discharge  of  his  debts.  But  the  Commons 
had  not  got  over  their  distrust,  and  had  no  mind  to  make 
their  sovereign  independent,  nor  to  part  with  so  much 
money  till  they  had  some  assurance  as  to  its  use.  After 
full  debate,  they  voted  three  subsidies  and  three  fifteenths 
for  a  present  supply ;  ^  subject,  however,  to  the  unprece- 
dented condition,  that  it  should  be  lodged  for  disburse- 
ment in  the  hands  of  a  committee  of  Parliament.  An 
Act  "  concerning  Monopolies "  declared  that  kind  of  priv- 
ilege to  be  contrary  to  English  law  and  to  the  liberties  of 
the  English  people.  Little  other  business  of  importance 
was  concluded  at  this  session,  except  that  the  House  of 
Commons,  by  the  prosecution  of  the  Earl  of  Middlesex, 
the  Lord  Treasurer,  confirmed  the  precedent  of  its  right 
of  impeachment,  which  had  been  revived  after  long  disuse 
in  the  case  of  Lord  St.  Albans.  There  was  a  wide  range 
and  great  freedom  of  discussion  on  various  matters  of 

*  Parliamentary   History,    I.     1377,  noss  in  liis  rourse  witli  Parliament,  and 

1395.  tells  him  that,  until  he  can  resolve  "  once 

2  "  Less  than  three  hundred  thou-  constantly  to  run  one  way,"  he  (the 
Band  pounds."  (Hume,  Chap.  XLIX.)  Duke)  means  to  keep  away  from  him. 
—  Mrs.  Macaulay  (History  of  Kng-  It  is  signed  "  Your  IMajesty's  most  hum- 
land,  &o.,  I.  229,  note)  prints  a  letter  ble  slave  and  dog,  Stcenie,"  and  ad- 
fnnn  the  Duke  of  Buckingham,  in  dressed  to  the  writer's  "  Dear  dad  and 
which  he  rebukes  the  king  for  fickle-  gossip." 


Chap.  VII.]  PURITAN  POLITICS  IN  ENGLAND.  263 

domestic  and  foreign  policy.     And  for  the  first  time  in 
this  reio^n,  the  monarch  and  his  Parliament  part- 

1     •  1-11  T  1  May  29. 

ed  m  apparent  mutual  good  humor,     it  was  the 
last  time  that  their  harmony  was  to  be  brought  Death  of 
to  a  test.     Early  in  the  next  year,  James  sickened  ^'1625!'"^^' 
of  a  fever,  which  proved  fatal  after  a  few  days.         ^^'""^^  ^^• 

His  wretched  reign  marked  the  transition  from  a  scarce- 
ly disturbed  acquiescence  in  arbitrary  government  to  the 
incipient  triumph  of  popular  principles  in  Eng-  progress  of 
land.  The  history  of  legislation  faintly  indicates  dpiesTnTu" 
the  progress  which  had  been  made.  Parliament  '''''^"' 
had  abolished  monopolies,  and  had  maintained  its  free- 
dom of  debate,  and  its  exclusive  right  to  levy  duties  at  the 
custom-houses.  The  House  of  Commons  had  recovered 
its  privilege  of  impeachment,  and  secured  that  of  deciding 
questions  respecting  the  election  of  its  members.  Little 
else  had  been  effected  in  the  form  of  Parliamentary  action. 
But  the  spirit  and  courage  of  men  in  public  and  private 
life  had  been  raised ;  and  the  exigencies  of  the  time  had 
led  to  investigations  into  the  principles  of  politics,  which 
were  destined  to  bear  abundant  fruit. 

The  mild  temper  of  Archbishop  Abbot  was  hindered 
in  softening  the  rigor  of  ecclesiastical  authority  by  the 
despotic  policy  of  the  Lord  Keeper,   Williams,  i„fl„ence 
Bishop  of  Lincoln,  the  first  churchman  who  had  "''"''^''"p 

*■  _  Williams 

presided  in  the  chancery  since  the  deposition  of  ■"  <i'e 
Wolsey.  Williams  was  a  sycophant  rather  than 
a  bigot;  his  imputed  bigotry  disappeared,  when  he  lost 
court  favor ;  but  till  that  time  it  was  active.  "  As  the 
sun,"  said  he,  in  a  letter  defending  the  king's  instruction 
to  the  justices  to  release  recusant  Papists,  —  "as  the  sun 
in  the  firmament  appears  to  us  no  bigger  than  a  platter, 
and  the  stars  are  but  as  so  many  nails  in  the  pommel  of  a 
saddle,  because  of  the  enlargement  and  disproportion  be- 
tween our  eye  and  the  object,  so  is  there  such  an  unmeas- 
urable  distance  between  the  deep  resolution  of  a  prince 


201  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

and  the  shallow  apprehensions  of  common  and  ordinary 
people."  ^  James's  "  deep  resolution  "  the  pliant  but  able 
minister  set  himself  vigorously  to  carry  out,  which  he  was 
enabled  to  do  with  less  embarrassment  in  consequence  of 
the  inaction  of  his  ecclesiastical  superior.  The  good- 
natured  primate  had  withdrawn  from  court,  partly  in  dis- 
gust at  the  sentiments  which  prevailed  there,  partly  be- 
cause of  an  occurrence  which  was  liable  to  be  construed 
as  creating  a  canonical  disability.  By  accident,  in  hunting, 
he  had  shot  a  gamekeeper,  inflecting  a  mortal  wound. 

The  accession  of  a  new  sovereign  invited  the  friends  of 

freedom  in  the  English  church  and  state  to  mark  out  a 

definite  policy  for  the  future.     The  experience  of 

Accession  . 

of  Charles  thc  last  rcigu  had  alike  shown  the  need  and  the 
practicability  of  strong  proceedings,  and  afforded 
encouragement  as  to  their  happy  effect.  Whether  the 
patriots  had  been  more  or  less  admonished  by  their  ob- 
servations of  the  character  of  the  young  successor  to  the 
throne,  at  any  rate  his  close  ties  with  the  corrupt  courtier 
who  had  swayed  his  father's  counsels  were  enough  to 
make  him  liable  to  their  extreme  distrust,  —  a  distrust 
aggravated  by  the  disappointment  of  the  hopes  into  which 
the  favorite  had  recently  beguiled  them.  The  accession 
of  Charles  was  greeted  with  none  of  the  enthusiasm  which 
is  wont  to  welcome  a  young  king.  The  transient  popu- 
larity with  the  Puritans,  won  for  him  and  his  minister  by 
the  rupture  of  the  Spanish  match,  had  been  lost  at  once 
by  his  matrimonial  contract  with  a  daughter  of  France, 
which  was  fulfilled  immediately  on  his  coming  to  the 
throne. 

Owing  to  the  expenses  of  the  Spanish  war  and  the 
extravagance  of  his  father's  civil  list,  he  found  the  crown 
HiHnrstrar-  "^  ^^^^^  ^°  ^^^^  amouut  of  more  than  seven  hun- 
liamcr.t.       tli'ed    thousaud    pounds.       To    the    Parliament, 

Juno  18.  1    .    ,        1  . 

which  he   speedily  convoked,  he   communicated 

1  Ilushworth,  Historical   Collections,  I.  C3. 


Chap.  VII.]  PURITAN  POLITICS  IN  ENGLAND.  265 

no  details  of  his  pecuniary  embarrassment;  an  omissioa 
which  may  have  served  as  an  excuse  for  their  parsimony, 
when  they  voted  him  only  a  supply  of  two  subsidies, 
amounting  to  about  one  hundred  and  twelve  thousand 
pounds.^  But,  in  truth,  this  was  only  an  indication  of  a 
resolve  which  had  been  deliberately  taken,  to  control  the 
new  monarch  through  the  emptiness  of  his  exchequer. 
The  wise  men,  whom  the  time  had  raised  up,  understood 
that,  while  the  Commons  of  England  kept  the  purse,  they 
could  arrest  the  sword.  As  long  as  their  king  could  be 
made  to  look  to  them  for  money,  they  could  enforce  a 
good  administration  of  the  government  ;  if  he  should 
prove  able  to  get  it  without  their  consent,  he  was  a  despot 
and  they  were  slaves.  This  issue  they  had  now  made  up 
their  minds  to  try.  As  yet,  there  was  not,  properly  speak- 
ing, an  English  Constitution.  They  were  resolved  ^^  ^^^^^y 
that  there  should  be.  They  saw  that  the  time  °f''«'"°™- 
had  come  for  determining  whether  the  English  people 
should  live  in  future  under  an  absolute  or  under  a  lim- 
ited and  balanced  monarchy ;  and  they  launched  upon  the 
course  of  measures  which  was  to  decide  that  momentous 
question.^ 

Shutting  his  eyes  to  the  motive  of  the  mortification 
which  had  been  inflicted  on  him,  Charles  flattered  him- 
self that  further  acquaintance  with  his  necessities  would 
make  Parliament  more  generous  ;  and,  abandoning  the 
delicacy  of  his  first  application,  he  caused  a  detailed  state- 
ment of  his  financial  situation  to  be  presented  to  them, 
and  asked  immediate  relief  to  the  amount  of  no  less  than 
five  hundred  thousand  pounds.  It  was  of  no  avail.  The 
House  of  Commons  replied  by  representations  of  the 
growth  of  Popery,  and  by  requesting  a  stricter  adminis- 

1  So  Hume  (Chap.  L.).  But  Hallam  other  reasons  to  give  for  the  conduct  of 
(Chap.  TIL)  values  these  two  subsidies  this  Parliament;  but  he  has  to  recog- 
at  £  140,000.  nize  this  as  one   "of  considerable  mo- 

2  Hume   (Chap.   L.)    has  plenty  of    ment." 
VOL.  I.  23 


0(36  mSTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

tration  of  the  laws  for  its  suppression,  and  more  indul- 
gence to  the  Non-conformist  clergy.     Disgusted  with  their 
impracticablencss,  the  king  made  the  prevalence  of  an  epi- 
demic sickness  an  excuse  for  dissolvins^  his  first 

Its  dissolu-  ^ 

tion.  Parliament.      The  Lower  House  had  not  only 

Aug.  12.  .  ,  , .  ,  , 

been  penurious  as  to  an  immediate  supply,  but 
had  made  the  important  innovation  upon  the  practice  of 
two  centuries,  of  voting  the  grant  of  tonnage  and  pound- 
age for  one  year  only,  and  not  for  the  king's  life ;  a  re- 
striction which  caused  the  Lords  to  reject  the  bill,  and 
leave  the  royal  treasury  without  legal  right  to  that  re- 
source. The  patriots  had  been  highly  irritated  at  this 
juncture  by  the  discovery  of  a  treacherous  design  on  the 
part  of  the  king  and  the  duke  to  employ  an  English  fleet 
in  the  service  of  Louis  the  Thirteenth  against  the  Protes- 
tants of  Rochelle.^ 

By  a  forced  loan,  the  king  obtained  suflicient  money 
for  an  attempt  to  retrieve  his  affairs  by  an  attack  on  a 
rich  Spanish  fleet  in  the  harbor  of  Cadiz.  The  expedition 
failed,  and  he  was  compelled  to  have  recourse  to  a  new 
Parliament.  It  met  in  no  better  temper  than  the  last. 
His  second  tliougli  dcpiivcd  of  several  leaders  by  the  artifice 
*'  iGac"  of  an  appointment  which  they  received  to  be  sher- 
Feb.  10.  -^g  Q^  their  counties.  The  House  of  Commons 
came  to  a  resolution  to  gratify  the  king  with  four  sub- 

1  The  prctonon  was,  that  the  fleet  was  ordered  it  back  again,  and  succeeded 
to  act  with  the  French  against  the  Gen-  in  creating  a  belief  that  the  king  of 
oese,  who  Avere  alhes  of  Spain.  AV' hen  France  had  made  peace  willi  liis  Prot- 
it  arrived  at  Dieppe,  the  sailors,  who  cstant  subjects.  On  arriving  a  second 
had  become  convinced  that  they  were  time  at  Dieppe,  the  officers  and  men 
to  be  employed  against  their  fellow-  found  that  they  had  been  again  de- 
Protestants,  prepared  a  remonstrance  ceived ;  upon  which  Sir  Ferdinando 
m  the  form  of  a  round-rohin,  and  had  Gorges,  who  commanded  a  shij),  weighed 
it  laid  under  the  prayer-book  of  Pen-  his  anchor  and  returned  home,  though 
iiington,  the  Admiral.  Pennington  said  the  Admiral  opened  a  fire  upon  him. 
that,  sooner  than  fight  against  French  The  court  did  not  venture  to  bring  him 
Protestants,  lie  would  go  home  and  be  to  trial  for  this  act  of  nuitiny.  (Rush- 
hanged  ;  and  innnediately  returned  to  worth.  Collections,  I.  17G,  .325,  326,  337. 
England  with  the  fleet.      Buckingham  Fairfax,  Correspondence,  I.  20,  21.) 


Chap.  VII.]  PURITAN  POLITICS  IN  ENGLAND.  267 

sidies  and  three  fifteenths,  but  refused  for  the  present  to 
give  to  the  grant  the  form  of  law,  clearly  intimating  that 
its  consummation  would  be  contingent  upon  compliances 
of  the  court.  They  then  proceeded  to  frame  articles  of 
impeachment  against  the  Duke  of  Buckingham,  whom, 
while  this  measure  was  pending,  the  king,  as  if  to  express 
contempt  for  it,  recommended  to  the  University  of  Oxford 
as  its  Chancellor.  A  royal  message  threatened  them  that, 
if  ample  supplies  were  not  soon  provided,  Parliament 
would  be  dissolved,  and  the  king  would  try  "  new  coun- 
sels." He  imprisoned  two  members  who  had  been  ap- 
pointed managers  of  the  impeachment,  and  released  them 
only  when  the  House  declared  that  it  would  do  no  busi- 
ness while  they  were  detained.  The  House  set  to  work 
upon  a  remonstrance  against  levying  tonnage  and  pound- 
age without  the  authority  of  Parliament ;  and  upon  a 
petition  for  a  removal  of  the  favorite  from  the  king's  per- 
son and  service,  instead  of  the  impeachment  which  had 
been  proposed  at  first.  Compelled  to  see  that  he  could 
do  nothing  with  this  Parliament,  the  king  announced  its 
dissolution  in  unj^racious  terms  :   but  not  till  the       ,     , 

*-"  Its  dissolu- 

House  of  Commons  had  completed  the  prepara-  tion. 

f,     f      .  1   •    1  .1  June  1. 

tion  01  their  remonstrance,  winch  was  m  the  na- 
ture of  a  popular  appeal  in  justification  of  their  course. 

When  the  king  was  thus  left  destitute  of  means  for 
military  enterprise,  the  commonest  prudence  would  have 
dictated  to  him  to  hasten  the  conclusion  of  a  peace  with 
Spain,  and  so  gain  time  to  devise  measures  for  a  system 
of  administration  accordant  with  his  temper  and  his  theo- 
ries. But  his  rashness  was  the  security  which  Providence 
furnished  to  his  people  against  the  encroachments  of  his 
perfidious  ambition.  As  if  there  were  not  business  enough 
already  upon  his  hands,  he  immediately  plunged  into  a 
war  with  France,  under  the  pretence  of  a  pur-  war  with 
pose  to  become  the  protector  of  the  French  Prot-  ^''^"''^' 
estants,  but  probably  from  no  better  motive  than  to  gratify 


2G8  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

a  personal  pique  of  the  favorite.  He  extorted  the  pay- 
Eipedients  niciit  of  custoiiis,  as  if  the  grant  of  them  had 
for  a  revenue.  ]jqqj^  duly  made.  Ho  encumbercd  the  crown 
lands.  He  rigorously  enforced  fines  for  religious  delin- 
quency. He  exacted  loans,  among  others  one  of  a  hun- 
dred and  twenty  thousand  pounds  from  the  city  of  Lon- 
don. He  compelled  the  ports  to  provide  armed  vessels, 
and  instructed  the  lord-lieutenants  of  the  counties  to  bring 
the  militia  into  an  efficient  condition.  His  arrogant  pre- 
tensions kept  even  pace  with  his  outrages.  By  responsible 
persons  they  were  frankly  announced  to  be  not  his  neces- 
sity, but  his  system.  A  court  chaplain  preached,  that 
"  the  king  is  not  bound  to  observe  the  laws  of  the  realm 
concerning  the  subjects'  rights  and  liberties,  but  that  his 
royal  will  and  command  in  imposing  loans  and  taxes, 
without  common  consent  in  Parliament,  doth  oblige  the 
subjects'  conscience  upon  pain  of  eternal  damnation " ; 
and  another  ecclesiastic  taught,  that  "  the  prince,  who  is 
the  head,  makes  his  court  and  council ;  it  is  his  duty  to 
direct  and  make  laws ;  he  doth  whatsoever  pleases  him, 
and  who  may  say  unto  him,  '  What  dost  thou  ? '  "  ^  For 
refusing  to  license  the  sermon  which  contained  this  lan- 
guage. Archbishop  Abbot  was  suspended  from  his  office, 
1C27.  which  was  put  in  commission."  The  presiding 
''"'"'""'"•  commissioner  was  Laud,  Bishop  of  Bath  and 
Wells,  who  now  assumed  a  conspicuous  place  in  the 
administration. 

But  this  heyday  of  absolutism  was  not  to  go  on  un- 
checked. Buckingham,  with  a  powerful  fleet 
and  army,  was  driven  back  disgracefully  from  the 


Oct.  30. 


^  Ncal,  Vol.  II.  Chap.  HI.  —  Parlia-  cribcs  (p.  78)  the  di.«gracc  of  Abbot  to 

mentary  ili.-tory,  II.  .389.  his  refusal  to  be  concerm-d  in  the  pro- 

2  A   curious  little  contemporaneous  ceedings  in  the  case  of  the  Earl  of  Som- 

tra<:t,  entitled  "  Tiie  Court  and  Char-  erset  and  Lady  Essex.     The  tract  was 

acter  of  Kiiirr  James,  written  and  taken  reprinted  by  Sir  Walter  Scott  in  a  col- 

by  Sir  A.  W.  [Sir  Anthony  Weldon],  lection  called  "  Secret  History  of  tho 

being  an  Eye  and   Ear  Witness,"  as-  Court  of  James  the  First" 


Chap.  VII]  PUKITAN  POLITICS  IN  ENGLAND.  269 

coast  of  France.  The  exchequer  was  bankrupt.  Charles's 
counsellors  represented  to  him  the  extreme  danger  of  fur- 
ther attempts  to  obtain  money  by  illegal  exactions,  and 
prevailed  on  him  to  convoke  a  Parliament.  He  retracted 
his  consent  after  the  summons  had  been  issued.  But  a 
clamor  not  to  be  defied  immediately  reached  his  ears,  and 
he  reluctantly  yielded  to  the  necessity  of  his  helpless  con- 
dition. 

He  addressed  his  third  Parliament,  at  its  opening,  in 
that  tone  of  ungracious  assumption  which  scarcely  in  any 
exigencv  of  his  fortunes  could  he  consent  to  sup- 
press.     "  I  have  called    you  together,"    he  said,   March  17. 
"judging  a  Parliament  to  be  the  ancient,  speedi-  charies's 

est,  and  best  way to  give  such  supply  as  to  [famem?" 

secure  ourselves  and  save  our  friends  from  immi- 
nent ruin.  Every  man  now  must  do  according  to  his  con- 
science ;  wherefore,  if  you  (which  God  forbid)  should  not 
do  your  duties  in  contributing  what  this  state  at  this  time 
needs,  I  must,  in  discharge  of  my  conscience,  use  those 
other  means  which  God  hath  put  into  my  hands,  to  save 
that  which  the  follies  of  other  men  may  otherwise  hazard 
to  lose.  Take  not  this  as  a  threatening  (for  I  scorn  to 
threaten  any  but  my  equals) ;  but  an  admonition  from  him 
that,  both  out  of  nature  and  duty,  hath  most  care  of  your 
preservations  and  prosperities."  ^ 

In  the  new  Parliament,  the  king  found  a  fixedness  of 
purpose  which  should  not  have  taken  him  by  surprise. 
The  House  of  Commons  came  to  a  resolution  to  nscoura- 
grant  five  subsidies  within  a  year,  but  delayed  to  ^*"'"^  '°"®- 
put  it  in  the  shape  of  a  bill.  Having  thus  signified  their 
policy,  they  proceeded  to  other  matters.  They  passed 
unanimous  votes  denying  the  power  of  the  king  or  his 
Council  to  imprison  or  restrain  the  person  of  the  subject 
without  lawful  cause,  or  to  levy  a  tax,  loan,  or  benevo- 
lence without  authority  of  the  Estates  of  the  realm ;  and 

1  Parliamentary  History,  II.  218. 
23* 


June  2. 


270  HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

while  the  former  of  these  questions  was  before  the  Lords, 

where  it  was  strenuously  contested  by  the  court  party,  the 

Commons  followed  it  up  by  the  famous  Petition 

Petition  of  '  ^  r  -i    ^ 

Rigiit.  of  Rights  praymg  that  forced  loans,  commitments 
*'''^^'  without  cause  assigned,  quartering  of  soldiers  in 
private  houses,  and  proceedings  of  military  tribunals  in 
cases  cognizable  by  the  courts  of  law,  might  thencefor- 
ward be  discontinued,  as  being  "  wholly  and  directly  con- 
trary "  to  the  rights  and  liberties  of  the  subject,  and  "  the 
laws  and  statutes  of  the  realm."  ^ 

The  king  was  infinitely  perplexed.  Money  was  indis- 
pensable ;  but  a  price  was  demanded  for  it  which  he 
could  not  easily  bring  himself  to  pay.  He  tried  a  half- 
way measure.  In  place  of  the  customary  brief  expression 
of  royal  assent  to  legislative  acts,  he  substituted  the  follow- 
ing form :  "  The  king  willeth,  that  right  be  done 
according  to  the  laws  and  customs  of  the  realm, 
and  that  the  statutes  be  put  in  due  execution;  that  his 
subjects  may  have  no  cause  to  complain  of  any  wrong  or 
oppression  contrary  to  their  just  rights  and  liberties,  to  the 
preservation  whereof  he  holds  himself,  in  conscience,  as 
well  obliged,  as  of  his  own  prerogative."^  The  ominous 
silence,  with  which  this  annunciation  was  received  by  the 
Commons,  was  followed  by  a  stormy  debate  of  three  days' 
duration,  with  closed  doors.  The  king's  courage  wavered. 
He  came  into  the  House,  and  ordered  the  usual  reply  to 
be  recorded,  "  Let  right  be  done  as  is  desired " ;  adding, 
"  Now  I  have  done  my  part ;  wherefore,  if  this  Parlia- 
ment hath  not  a  happy  conclusion,  the  sin  is  yours;  I 
am  free  of  it."  ^  Thus  far  all  was  well,  and  the  bill  for 
subsidies  was  immediately  passed."* 

But  the  grants  of  tonnage  and  poundage  were  still  in 
reserve,  and  they  were  the  main  permanent  reliance  of  the 
crown.  It  was  believed  that  a  wise  use  of  the  power  of 
the  Commons   in  respect  to  them  might  extort  further 

>  Parlianu-ntary  History,  11.374-377.  3  Ibid.,  409. 

^Il^iJ,  377.  4  Ibid.,  410. 


Chap.  VII.]  PURITAN  POLITICS  IN  ENGLAND.  271 

concessions,  and  a  remonstrance  was  presented,  setting 
forth  the  evils  which  oppressed  the  civil  and  religious 
interests  of  the  kingdom,  ascribing  them  mainly  to  the 
malign  agency  of  the  Duke  of  Buckingham,  and  praying 
his  removal  from  the  royal  councils.  But  Charles  had 
made  up  his  mind  not  to  be  so  constrained.  Having  given 
his  assent  to  the  subsidy  bill,  he  prorop^ued  the 

n  .  .  (,     June  26. 

Parliament,  after  a  few  words  in  explanation  of 
the  construction  put  by  him  on  the  Petition  of  Right. 
"  As  for  tonnage  and  poundage,"  he  said,  "  it  is  a  thing 
I  cannot  want,  and  was  never  intended  by  you  to  ask, 
never  meant  (I  am  sure)  by  me  to  grant."  ^ 

The  assassination  of  the  Duke  of  Buckingham  shortly 
after,   by  an   obscure  enthusiast  named   Felton,  was   an 
indication  of  the  excitement  which  had  reached    Aug.  23. 
all  ranks  of  the  EnHish  people.-     That  event  left  TtT\ 

O^  11  the  Duke  of 

the  king  without  his  accustomed  guidance,  and  Bucking- 
for  a  while  he  was  his  own  chief  counsellor.  The 
Duke  received  his  death-blow  at  Portsmouth,  whence  he 
was  preparing  to  sail  with  a  fleet  to  retrieve  the  disasters^ 
of  the  English  arms  at  E-ochelle.  Under  the  feeble  com- 
mand of  the  Earl  of  Lindsay,  who  succeeded  him,  the 
expedition,  provided  at  immense  cost,  utterly  miscarried. 

Against  the  re-assembling  of  Parliament,  the  king  made 
the  new  experiment  of  corrupting  some  of  the  leaders 
of  the  popular  party.  One  accession  to  the  court  inter- 
est  was    of   especial    importance.      Sir   Thomas 

*■  •"■  Wentworth, 

Wentworth  belonged  to  that  class  of  men  of  rare  Eari  of 

-,•,.■..  ^  r  •  •  11      Strafford. 

energy  and  ability,  who  irom  time  to  time  shock 

the  moral  sense  of  the  world  by  deserting  for  some  price 

the  great  service  of  humanity  for  Avhich  they  seem  marked 

1  Parliamentary  History,  II.  433.  peared,  which  tells  volumes  respecting 

2  "On   June  the   18th,  Dr.   Lamb,     the  spirit  of  the  people  :  — 

a   favorite   of  his   [Buckingham's],    lost         <  Let  Charles  and  George  do  what  they  can, 
Ills    life   by    injuries    received     from    a  The  Duko  shall  die  like  Doctor  Lamb.' "  — 

mob  who  had  collected  for  that  pur-  Autobiography  of  Sir  Simonds  D'Ewes, 

pose.     On  that  occasion  a  couplet  ap-  I.  378,  note. 


272  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

out  by  nature.  From  the  beginning  of  his  early  public 
life  he  had  been  among  the  most  conspicuous  opponents 
of  royal  usurpation.  He  watched  his  time  to  make  terms 
with  the  favorite,  between  whom  and  himself  there  had 
existed  an  intense  personal  hostility ;  and  his  defection 
July  22.  ^"^'^s  proclaimed  by  his  elevation  to  the  peerage  as 
a  baron,  which  was  soon  followed  by  his  advance- 

Dec.  10. 

mcnt  to  a  higher  rank ;  "  the  first  Englishman 
to  whom  a  peerage  was  not  an  addition  of  honor,  but  a 
sacrament  of  infamy."-^  While  the  civil  and  military 
administration  passed  into  his  hands,  that  of  the  High- 
Commission  Court,  and  of  ecclesiastical  affairs  in  general. 
Advancement  dcvolvcd  upou  his  fricud,  the  intolerant  and 
of  Laud.  narrow-minded  Laud.  With  Laud,  conformity 
gave  little  protection,  where  there  was  the  suspicion  of  a 
taint  of  Puritan  opinions.  His  rigor  was  one  of  the  sub- 
jects of  discontent  set  forth  in  the  Parliamentary  Remon- 
strance, which  complained  of  "  the  discountenancing  or- 
thodox and  painful  ministers,  though  conformable  and 
peaceable  in  their  behavior."  And  he  obtained  from  the 
king  a  proclamation  against  "  unnecessary  disputations, 
which  may  nourish  faction  in  the  church  or  common- 
wealth," "  the  main  end  of  which  declaration  "  was  con- 
strued by  the  House  of  Commons  to  be,  "  to  suppress 
the  Puritan  party,  and  yet  to  give  liberty  to  the  contrary 
side."  ^  "  The  counter-reformation  of  Laud "  was  fully 
inaugurated.^ 

The  new  session  was  opened  by  a  demand  from  the  king 
for  an  immediate  consideration  of  the  bill  for  tonnage 
1C29.      and  poundage,  those  duties  having  now  been  lev- 
jau.  20.    ^p J  nearly  four  years  without  Parliamentary  au- 
thority.    The  House  of  Commons  had  other  business  to 


1  Edinburgh  Review,  XLVm.  114,  masterly  "Introductory  Lectures"  by 
in  an  article  ascribed  to  Lord  Macaulay.  the  Reverend  Arthur  Penrhyn  Stanley, 

2  Rushworth,  Collections,  L  G.5.3.  Rogiije  Professor  of  Ecclesiastical  Ilis- 
>*  I    take    tlic    expression    fioin    the  tory  at  Oxford. 


Chap.  VII.]  PURITAN  POLITICS  IN  ENGLAND.  273 

transact  first.  It  had  become  known  to  them,  that  to  the 
copies  of  the  Petition  of  Right  which  had  been  sent  out 
in  print,  Charles,  with  that  treachery  which  was  his  ruling 
instinct,  had  caused  to  be  appended  the  ambiguous  form 
of  assent  which  he  had  at  first  proposed,  and  not  the 
simple  and  customary  one  which  he  had  ultimately  been 
compelled  to  adopt,  —  a  fact  naturally  destructive  of  what- 
ever might  still  exist  of  confidence  in  his  integrity.  They 
learned,  that,  in  violation  of  the  terms  of  that  instrument, 
one  Savage  had  been  mutilated  under  a  decree  of  the  Star- 
Chamber  Court ;  and  that  the  clergymen  whose  high-pre- 
rogative principles  had  incurred  their  rebuke  had  been 
pardoned  and  promoted.  They  raised  committees  to  in- 
vestigate the  causes  of  the  feeble  administration  of  the 
laws  against  Popery,  and,  proceeding  to  the  business  of 
the  revenue,  deliberated  on  a  remonstrance  against  the 
levying  of  tonnage  and  poundage  without  authority  of  law. 
The  Speaker,  who  had  instructions  from  the  kinsr 
not  to  take  the  vote,  would  have  risen  to  break 
up  the  House,  but  he  Avas  forcibly  detained  in  his  seat 
by  two  members  ;  while  a  further  motion  was  made  to 
declare  every  one  who  should  advise  or  assist  in  the  illegal 
imposition  to  be  "  a  capital  enemy  to  the  kingdom  and  gov- 
ernment," and  whoever  should  pay  it,  "  a  betrayer  of  the 
liberties  of  England  and  an  enemy  to  the  same."  The  king, 
provoked  beyond  bounds  by  this  intelligence,  sent  a  mes- 
sage by  an  officer.  He  was  denied  admittance,  and  was 
about  to  force  the  door,  when  the  House  adjourned  for 
a  week. 

It  met  again  only  to  be  dissolved,  and  from  that  day 
England  was  an  absolute  monarchy  for  eleven  March  jo. 
vears.     With  what  confidence  the  roval  resolu-  ^'^"/^^of 

•'  ^  Parliaments 

tion  had  been  taken,  was  not  left  to  be  matter  of  for  eleven 
conjecture.     Scarcely  had  the  members  dispersed, 
before  several  of  the  most  eminent  were  committed  to  the 
Tower  or  other  prisons.    When  they  were  claimed  by  a  writ 


March  27 


274  HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I, 

of  habeas  corpus,  the  Lieutenant  of  the  Tower  was  forbidden 
to  produce  his  prisoners  in  court.  At  length,  they  were 
condemned  to  pay  fines,  to  be  detained  during  the  king's 
pleasure,  and  to  make  submission  to  him  before  they 
should  be  discharged.  One  of  them.  Sir  John  Eliot,  the 
very  head  of  the  patriot  movement,  lingered  in  prison 
three  years,  and  then  died.  All  hope  of  legislative  as  well 
as  of  judicial  relief  was  at  an  end  for  the  present.  "  By 
our  frequent  meeting  with  our  people,"  said  Charles  in  a 
proclamation,  —  he  had  now  reigned  less  than  four 
years,  —  "  we  have  showed  our  love  to  the  use  of 
Parliaments ;  yet  the  late  abuse  having  for  the  present 
driven  us  unwillingly  out  of  that  course,  we  shall  account 
it  presumption  for  any  to  prescribe  any  time  unto  us  for 
Parliaments,  the  calling,  continuing,  and  dissolving  of 
which  is  always  in  our  own  power ;  and  we  shall  be  more 
inclinable  to  meet  in  Parliament  again,  when  our  people 
shall  see  more  clearly  into  our  interests  and  actions."  ^ 

So  stood  the  contest  between  the  liberties  of  England 
and  the  crown  at  the  dissolution  of  the  third  Parliament 
of  King  Charles  the  First.  The  chief  actors  on  one  side 
were,  and  were  to  be,  the  Puritan  religionists.  The  sys- 
Fuii  devriop-  tem  of  faith  and  politics  which  overruled  the 
Puritan  sys-    courso  of  EugUsh  aftairs  for  the  remainder  of  the 


tem 


century,  and  brought  about  the  establishment  of 
constitutional  freedom  in  England,  had  now  definitely 
assumed  its  main  characteristics. 

The  Puritan  was  a  Scripturist,  —  a  Scripturist  with  all 
his  heart,  if,  as  yet,  with  imperfect  intelligence.  Poman- 
itsusoof  ism  he  detested  as  a  fiction  of  human  coniriv- 
Pcripturo.  ance.  In  extreme  opposition  to  it,  he  cherished 
the  scheme  of  looking  to  the  word  of  God  as  his  sole  and 
universal  directory.  That  word  had  been  but  lately  made 
common  property  by  the  lleformation.  The  preparation 
for  interpreting  it  possessed  by  the  best  scholars  of  the 

1  Rymer,  XIX.  63. 


CiiAP.  VII]  PURITAN  POLITICS  IN  ENGLAND.  275 

day  was  inadequate,  and  the  judicious  application  of  such 
learning  as  existed  was  disturbed  by  the  rashness  of  enthu- 
siasm and  novelty.  The  Puritan  searched  the  Bible,  not 
only  for  principles  and  rules,  but  for  mandates,  —  and, 
when  he  could  find  none  of  these,  for  analogies, — to  guide 
him  in  precise  arrangements  of  public  administration,  and 
in  the  minutest  points  of  individual  conduct.  By  it  he 
settled  cases  of  conscience,  and  in  this  casuistry  his  learn- 
ing and  ingenuity  were  largely  employed.  His  objections 
to  the  government  of  the  Church  by  bishops  were  founded, 
not  so  much  on  any  bad  working  of  that  polity,  as  on  the 
defect  of  authority  for  it  in  the  New  Testament;  and  he 
preferred  his  plain  hierarchy  of  pastors,  teachers,  elders, 
and  deacons,  not  primarily  because  it  tended  more  to  edifi- 
cation, but  because  Paul  had  specified  their  ofiices  by 
name.  He  took  the  Scriptures  as  a  homogeneous  and 
rounded  whole,  and  scarcely  distinguished  between  the 
authority  of  Moses  and  the  authority  of  Christ.  The  po- 
sition of  violent  antagonism,  into  which  he  was  brought 
by  passing  circumstances,  led  him  to  resort  for  guidance 
even  more  readily  to  the  Old  Testament  than  to  the  New. 
The  opposing  party  in  the  state  was  associated  in  his  mind 
with  the  Philistine  and  Amorite  foes  of  the  ancient  chosen 
people ;  and  he  read  the  doom  of  the  king  and  his  wanton 
courtiers  in  the  Psalm  which  put  the  "  high  praises  of 
God "  in  the  mouth  of  God's  people,  "  and  a  two-edged 
sword  in  their  hand,  to  bind  their  kings  with  chains  and 
their  nobles  with  fetters  of  iron."  His  theory  of  munici- 
pal law  aimed  at  the  emendation  of  the  traditional  system 
of  his  country  by  an  adoption  of  provisions  promulgated 
to  a  people  of  peculiar  position  and  destiny,  in  a  distant 
age  and  land  ;  he  would  have  witchcraft,  Sabbath-breaking, 
and  filial  disobedience  weighed  in  the  judicial  scales  of  a 
Hebrew  Sanhedrim.  His  forms  of  speech  were  influenced 
by  this  fond  reverence  for  the  Bible.  The  history  of  the 
Israelitish  tribes  was  his  favorite  storehouse  for  topics  of 


276  HISTORY  OF  KEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

argument  and  eloquence,  and  he  named  his  children  after 
the  Christian  graces,  still  oftener  after  the  worthies  of 
Palestine,  or,  with  yet  more  singularity,  after  some  signifi- 
cant clause  of  holy  writ.^ 

The  Puritan  was  a  strict  Moralist.     lie  might  be  ridi- 
culed for  being  over-scrupulous,  but  never  reproached  for 
laxity.     Most  wisely,  by  precept,  influence,  and 

Its  morality.  *  •       i       i         ,  i  i  i 

example,  —  unwisely  by  too  severe  law,  when  he 
obtained  the  power,  —  he  endeavored  to  repress  prevailing 
vice,  and  organize  a  Christian  people.  His  error  was  not 
that  of  interfering  without  reason,  or  too  soon.  When 
he  insisted  on  a  hearing,  villanous  men  and  shameless 
women,  whose  abominations  were  a  foul  offence  in  the 
sliiht  of  God,  and  of  all  Avho  reverenced  God,  were  flaunt- 
ing  in  the  royal  drawing-rooms.  The  foundations  of  pub- 
lic honor  and  prosperity  were  sapped.  The  influences 
which  descend  from  high  life  into  the  mass  of  society 
were  poisoned  at  their  source.  It  is  not  from  the  Puri- 
tan's representations  alone  that  we  learn  the  political  cor- 
ruption, and  the  impurity  of  private  manners,  that  dis- 
gusted him  with  the  court  and  its  retainers.  Writers 
who  assailed  his  religious  position,  at  the  same  time 
echoed  his  complaints  of  the  prevailing  immorality.  The 
drama  of  that  period,  imported  from  Catholic  Italy,  sur- 
vives to  testify  to  the  tastes  and  character  of  the  audiences 
which  welcomed  it,  and  which  in  turn  it  educated  with  its 
seductive  lessons  of  wickedness.^     The  Puritan's  mistake 


^   This   practice   began    at   least   as  had  received  their  baptismal  names  in 

early  as  the  beginning  of  the  century,  the  reign  of  Elizabetli. 

It  is  ridiculed  in  Ben  Jonson's  ''  Alche-  2  "  Xhe  court  of  this  king  [James  the 

mist,"  first  acted  in   IGIO,  and  in  his  First]  was  a  nursery  of  lust  and  intcni- 

"  Bartholomew   Fair,"   acted   in    1614.     perance To  keep  the  people 

Characters  in  the  former  are  "Tribula-  in  their  deplorable  security,  till  ven- 
tion  Wholesome,  a  pastor  of  Amster-  geance  overtook  them,  they  were  enter- 
dam,"  and  "  Ananias,  a  deacon  there  " ;  tained  with  masks,  stage-plays,  and  all 
and  in  the  latter,  "Zeal  of  the  Land  sorts  of  ruder  sports.  Then  began  mur- 
Bnsy."  Men  who  were  forty  years  old  der, incest,  adultery,  drunkcnness,swear- 
when  the  Long  Parliament  assembled,  ing,  fornication,  and  all  sort  of  ribaldry, 


Chap.  VII.]  PURITAN  POLITICS  IN  ENGLAND.  277 

at  a  later  period  was,  that  he  undertook  by  public  regula- 
tion what  public  regulation  can  never  achieve,  and,  by 
aiming  to  form  a  nation  of  saints,  introduced  hypocrites 
among  them  to  defeat  their  objects  and  bring  scandal  on 
their  cause,  while  the  saints  were  made  no  more  numer- 
ous and  no  better.  But,'  at  the  time  to  which  the  preced- 
ing narrative  relates,  nothing  in  his  course  was  apparent 
but  the  eminently  upright  and  Christian  purpose.  What 
there  was  of  practical  indiscretion  and  error,  was  to  be 
made  manifest  in  the  experiment  of  a  later  period. 

In  politics,  the  Puritan  was  the  Liberal  of  his  day.  If 
he  construed  his  duties  to  God  in  the  spirit  of  a  narrow 
interpretation,  that  punctilious  sense  of  religious  itspubuc 
responsibility  impelled  him  to  limit  the  assump-  ^"'°"- 
tions  of  human  government/  In  no  stress,  in  no  delirium, 
of  politics,  could  a  Puritan,  have  been  brought  to  teach, 
that,  for  either  public  or  private  conduct,  there  is  some 
law  of  man  above  the  law  of  God.  Penetrated  with  the 
opposite  conviction,  he  found  himself  enforced,  at  last, 
to  overset  the  Stuart  throne.  Service  which  he  believed 
the  authority  of  God  to  claim,  he  saw  himself  forbidden 
by  human  authority  to   pay.     That  issue,   presented  to 

to  be  no  concealed,  but  countenanced  folio  volume  of  the  "Works  of  Joseph 

vices,  because  they  held  such  conform-  Hall,  Bishop  of  Exeter.     The  Bishop's 

ity   •with   the   court   example."     (Mrs.  "  Censure  of  Travel "  may  be  taken  as 

Hutcliinson,Memoir3of  Colonel  Hutch-  instar   omnium.      Massinger,   Webster, 

inson,  I.   117,  118.)      This  is  the  Ian-  Shirley,  —  not  Shakespeare,  and  scarce- 

guage  of  a  dissenter,  indeed,  but  of  a  ly  Jonson,  or  Beaumont  and  Fletcher, 

hi"-h-bred  and  delicate  woman.     Any  —  were  the  favorite  play-writers  of  the 

one  who  would  see  how  the  same  sub-  time.     It  was  of  a  play  of  Shirley,  un- 

ject  is  treated  by  a  courtier,  not  too  far  surpassed,  if  surpassable,  in  indecency, 

gone  to  have  kept  his  sense  of  decency,  that  King  Charles  the  First  is  recorded, 

may  look  at  Harrington's   sketch  of  a  not  only  to  have  said  "  it  was  the  best 

drawing-room   scene    during    the   visit  play  he  had  seen  for  seven  years,"  but  to 

of  the   king  of  Denmark  to  London  have  himself  furnished  the  plot.  —  The 

in   1G06.     (Nugaj    Antiquaa,   I.    348.)  North  British   Review  (XXV.   1-46) 

And  to  know  how  it  was  looked  upon  treats  this  subject  with  admirable  wis- 

by  a  plain-spoken  man,  —  no  dissenter  dom  and  learning,  in  an  article  entitled 

at  all,  but  a  prelate  of  the  Church, —  "  Plays  and  Puritans,"  said  to  be  from  the 

one  may  turn  over  a  few  pages  of  the  pen  of  the  Reverend  Charles  Kingsley. 
VOL.  I.                                    24 


278  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

him,  made  him  in  politics  a  casuist,  an  innovator,  the 
architect  of  a  new  system.  From  the  time  when  the 
problem,  with  which  for  a  while  he  struggled,  was  worked 
out,  governments  over  the  British  race  were  to  rest  on  the 
public  consent,  and  to  be  administered  for  the  public  bene- 
fit. Such  was  the  brightness  of  the  light  to  which  he 
made  his  way  through  many  scenes  of  darkness. 

"When,  after  the  restoration  of  the  Stuart  line,  an  un- 
bridled licentiousness  of  manners  had  succeeded  to  his 
Its  habits  austerity,  —  when  an  ornate  beastliness  was  the 
and  manners,  faghiou  of  tlic  mcu  aud  womcu  in  high  places, 
and  such  writers  as  Wycherley  and  Mrs.  Behn  expressed 
and  formed  the  morals  of  so  many  clamorers  for  Lord 
Clarendon's  creed,  —  the  ribald  wits  of  the  time  so  grossly 
marred  the  record  of  the  Puritan,  that  it  is  difficult  even 
for  those  who  sympathize  with  his  views  in  religion  and 
politics  to  recover  a  just  conception  of  his  dignified  and 
manly  character,  as  it  existed  in  the  days  which  must  be 
referred  to  for  a  true  delineation.  Nor  has  this  been 
wholly  the  result  of  injustice  on  the  part  of  writers  de- 
picting what  they  wanted  the  moral  capacity  to  estimate 
with  justness.  The  character  had  itself  degenerated,  in 
reaching  the  time  when  it  came  under  their  observation. 
Puritanism,  from  the  outbreak  of  the  Great  Rebellion, 
was  subjected  to  the  infelicities  and  abuses  which  neces- 
sarily attend  a  formidable  and  successful  party.  "When 
it  clothed  itself  with  the  associations  of  power  and  gran- 
deur, vulgar  men,  without  being  sordid  or  ambitious,  fol- 
lowed its  modes,  and  by  their  vulgarity  exaggerated  and 
degraded  them.  ^Vhen  it  came  to  have  honors  and  for- 
tunes to  bestow,  base  men  attached  themselves  to  it  for 
the  promotion  of  their  base  ends  ;  and  the  excesses  of  the 
dishonest  pretender  brought  into  discredit  and  ridicule  the 
practices  of  the  sincere  devotee,  i 

But,  whatever  may  have  talrch  place  later,  the  Puritan- 
ism of  the  first  forty  years  of  the  seventeenth  century  was 


Chap.  VII  ]  PURITAN  POLITICS  IN  ENGLAND.  279 

not  tainted  with  degrading  or  ungraceful  associations 
of  any  sort.  The  rank,  the  wealth,  the  chivalry^  the  ge- 
nius, the  learning,  the  accomplishments,  the  social  refine- 
ments and  elegance  of  the  time,  were  largely  represented 
in  its  ranks.  Not  to  speak  of  Scotland,  where  soon 
Puritanism  had  few  opponents  in  the  class  of  the  high- 
born and  the  educated,  the  severity  of  Elizabeth  scarcely 
restrained,  in  her  latter  days,  its  predominance*  among 
the  most  exalted  orders  of  her  subjects.  The  Earls 
of  Leicester,  Bedford,  Huntington,  and  Warwick,  Sir 
Nicholas  Bacon,  his  greater  son,  AValsingham,  Burleigh, 
Mildmay,  Sadler,  Knollys,  were  specimens  of  a  host  of 
eminent  men  more  or  less  friendly  to,  or  tolerant  of  it. 
Throughout  the  reign  of  James  the  First,  it  controlled  the 
House  of  Commons,  composed  chiefly  of  the  landed  gentry 
of  the  kingdom ;  and,  if  it  had  less  sway  among  the  Peers, 
this  was  partly  because  the  number  of  lay  nobles  did  not 
largely  exceed  that  of  the  Bishops,  who  were  mostly  crea- 
tures of  the  crown.  The  aggregate  property  of  that  Puri- 
tan House  of  Commons  whose  dissolution  has  been  just 
now  related,  was  computed  to  be  three  times  as  great  as 
that  of  the  Lords.^  The  statesmen  of  the  first  period  of 
that  Parliament  which  by  and  by  dethroned  Charles  the 
First,  had  been  bred  in  the  luxury  of  the  landed  aris- 
tocracy of  the  realm ;  while  of  the  nobility,  Manchester, 
Essex,  Warwick,  Brooke,  Fairfax,  and  others,  and  of  the 
gentry,  a  long  roll  of  men  of  the  scarcely  inferior  position 
of  Hampden  and  Waller,  commanded  and  officered  its 
armies  and  fleets.  A  Puritan  was  the  first  Protestant 
founder  of  a  college  at  an  English  University.  Among  the 
clergy,  representing  mainly  the  scholarship  of  the  country, 
nothing  is  more  incontrovertible,  than  that  the  permanent 
ascendency  of  Puritanism  was  only  prevented  by  the  se- 
verities of  the  governments  of  Elizabeth  and  her  Scottish 
kinsmen,  under  the  several  administrations  of  Parker, 
Whitgift,  Bancroft,  and  Laud. 

1  Hurae,  Chap.  LI. 


OgO  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

It  may  be  easily  believed  that  none  of  the  guests  whom 
the  Earl  of  Leicester  placed  at  his  table  by  the  side  of  his 
nephew,  Sir  Philip  Sidney,  Avere  clowns.  But  the  suppo- 
sition of  any  necessary  connection  between  Puritanism  and 
what  is  harsh  and  rude  in  taste  and  manners,  Will  not  even 
stand  the  test  of  an  observation  of  the  character  of  men 
who  figured  in  its  ranks,  when  the  lines  came  to  be  most 
distinctly  drawn.  The  Parliamentary  general,  Devereux, 
Earl  of  Essex,  was  no  strait-laced  gospeller,  but  a  man 
formed  with  every  grace  of  person,  mind,  and  culture,  to 
be  the  ornament  of  a  splendid  court,  the  model  knight,  — 
the  idol,  as  long  as  he  was  the  comrade,  of  the  royal  sol- 
diery, —  the  Bayard  of  the  time.  The  position  of  Man- 
chester and  Fairfax,  of  Ilollis,  Fiennes,  and  Pierrepont,  was 
by  birthright  in  the  most  polished  circle  of  English  society. 
In  the  Memoirs  of  the  young  regicide,  Colonel  Hutchinson, 
recorded  by  his  beautiful  and  high-souled  wife,  we  may  look 
at  the  interior  of  a  Puritan  household,  and  see  its  graces, 
divine  and  human,  as  they  shone  with  a  naturally  blended 
lustre  in  the  most  strenuous  and  most  afflicted  times.' 
The  renown  of  English  learning  owes  something  to  the 
sect  which  enrolled  the  names  of  Selden,  Lightfoot,  Gale, 
and  Owen.~  Its  seriousness  and  depth  of  thought  had  lent 
their  inspiration  to  the  delicate  muse  of  Spenser.^      Judg- 

^  The  following  contemporaneous  por-  kinds;  he  took  great  delight  in  perspec- 

trait  of  an  ollicerof'the  Puritan  Common-  tive  glasses,  and,  for  his  other  rarities, 

wealth  corr(!sponds  little  with  the  ideal  was  not  so  much  affected  with  the  an- 

which  has  since  been  received.   Colonel  tiquity  as  the  merit  of  the  work  ;   he 

Ilutchinsoa    "  could   dance    admirably  took  much  pleasure  in  improvement  of 

well,   but  neither  in  youth  nor  riper  grounds,  in  planting  groves  and  walks 

years  made  any  practice  of  it;  he  had  and  fruit-trees,  in  opening  si)rings,  and 

skill  in  fencing,  such  as  became  a  gen-  making  fish-ponds."      (IMemoirs  of  the 

tleman  ;  he  had  great  love  to  music,  and  Life  of  Colonel  Hutchinson,  I.  33,  34.) 
often  diverted  himself  with  a  viol,  on         2  The  "i)ainful '  Owen,  carrying  with- 

which  he  played  masterly ;  he  had  an  in  his  broad  forehead  the  concentrated 

exact  ear  and  judgment  in  other  music  ;  extract  of  a  thousand  folios,  was  consid- 

lic  shot  excellently  in  bows  and  guns,  ered  in  his  time  something  of  a  cox- 

and  much  used  them  for  his  exercise ;  comb  in  personal  appearance.     (Tay- 

he  had  great  judgment   in   paintings,  Icr,  Religious  Progress  in  England,  95.) 
graving,  sculpture,  and  all  liberal  arts,         3  See  the  Fifth  Eclogue  of  Spenser, 

and  had  many  curiosities  of  value  in  all  and   his    "  ^lother    llubberd's    Tale," 


CUAP.    VII.] 


rUMTAN  POLITICS  IN  ENGLAND. 


281 


ing  between  their  colleague  preachers,  Travers  and  Hook- 
er, the  critical  Templars  awarded  the  palm  of  scholar- 
ly eloquence  to  the  Puritan.  When  the  Puritan  lawyer 
"Whitelock  was  ambassador  to  Queen  Christina,  he  kept 
a  magnificent  state,  which  was  the  admiration  of  her 
court,  perplexed  as  they  were  by  his  persistent  Puritanical 
testimony  against  the  practice  of  drinking  healths.^  For 
his  Latin  secretary,  the  Puritan  Protector  employed  a 
man  at  once  equal  to  the  foremost  of  mankind  in  genius 
and  learning,  and  skilled  in  all  manly  exercises,  proficient 
in  the  lighter  accomplishments  beyond  any  other  English- 
man of  his  day,  and  caressed  in  his  youth,  in  France  and 
Italy,  for  eminence  in  the  studies  of  their  fastidious  schol- 
ars and  artists.^  The  king's  camp  and  court  at  Oxford 
had  not  a  better  swordsman  or  amateur  musician  than 
John  Milton,  and  his  portraits  exhibit  him  with  locks  as 
flowing  as  Prince  Rupert's.^    In  such  trifles  as  the  fashion 


verses  484  et  seq.  His  relations  to  the 
Earl  of  Essex  may  well  have  brought 
him  under  Grindall's  influence. 

1  "  How  could  you  pass  over  their 
very  long  winter  nights?"  the  Protector 
asked  Whitelock  at  the  audience  of  re- 
turn from  his  embassy.  "  I  kept  my 
people  together,"  was  the  reply,  "  and 
in  action  and  recreation,  by  having 
music  in  my  house,  and  encouraging 
that  and  the  exercise  of  dancing,  which 
held  them  by  the  ej'es  and  ears,  and 
gave  them  diversion  without  any  offence. 
And  I  caused  the  gentlemen  to  have 
disputations  in  Latin,  and  declamations 
upon  words  which  I  gave  them."  And 
t'le  dialogue  proceeded  :  —  Cromicell. 
"  Those  were  very  good  diversions,  and 
made  your  house  a  little  academy." 
Whitelock.  "  I  thought  these  recreations 
better  than  gaming  for  money,  or  going 
forth  to  places  of  debauchery."  Crom- 
icell. "  It  was  much  better."  (White- 
lock,  Embassy  to  Sweden,  II.  438,  439. 
The  book,  lately  republished,  is  very 
24* 


interesting  for  its  illustrations  of  man- 
ners in  the  time  of  the  Commonwealth, 
as  well  as  for  its  other  contents.) 
2  "  Haste  then,  nymph,  and  bring  with  theo 
Jest,  and  youthful  Jollity, 


Sport,  that  wrinkled  Care  derides, 
And  Laughter,  holding  both  his  sides." 
Such  verses  do  not  express  the  morbid- 
ness of  any  Malachi  ]\Ialagrowther. 

3  The  "  prick-eared  knaves  "  to  whom 
Sir  Geoffrey  Peveril  gave  the  credit  of 
trowling  his  Cavalier  friends  down  "  like 
so  many  ninepins,  at  Wiggan  Lane," 
certainly  did  not  set  the  fashion  of  hair- 
dressing  to  all  their  party.  "  King 
Pym,"  for  a  time  the  representative 
Roundhead,  wears,  on  the  canvas  of 
Iloubraken,  the  same  moderate  cheve- 
lure  as  is  now  thought  becoming  for  a 
chamberlain  of  Queen  Victoria.  But 
Avhcn  the  body  of  Hampden,  the  "  Great 
Brother,"  as  Strafford  called  him,  (Lord 
Nugent,  Life  of  Hampden,  I.  150,)  was 
disinterred,  twenty-five  years  ago,  it  was 
thought  at  first  to  be  a  woman's,  from 


282  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

of  apparel,  the  usage  of  the  best  modern  society  vindi- 
cates, in  characteristic  particulars,  the  Roundhead  judg- 
ment and  taste  of  the  century  before  the  last.  The 
English  gentleman  now,  as  the  Puritan  gentleman  then, 
dresses  plainly  in  "  sad  "  colors,  and  puts  his  lace  and  em- 
broidery on  his  servants. 

the  profusion  of  long  hair.    Mrs.  Hutch-  handsome,  so  that  it  was  a  great  oma- 

inson  sajs    (Memoirs,    181),   that   her  ment  to  him";  and  in  his  portrait,  it 

husband,  "  liaving  naturally  a  veiy  fine  rolls  in  curls  down  his  shoulders  and 

thick-set  head  of  hair,  kept  it  clean  and  over  his  mail. 


CHAPTEH   VIII. 


Years  had  passed  since  the  severity  of  the  government 
had  overcome  the  Separatists,  forcing  them  either  to  dis- 
band their  congres^ations,  or  flee  from  the  kins- 

O       O,  '  _  ^.      .  Position  of 

dom.  From  the  time  when  Bishop  Williams  Puritans  in 
was  made  Keeper  of  the  Great  Seal,  four  years 
before  the  death  of  King  James,  the  High-Com- 
mission Court  again  became  active,  and  the  condition  of 
Puritans  in  the  Church  was  day  by  day  more  uneasy. 
While  some  among  them  looked  for  relief  to  a  happy 
issue  of  the  struggle  which  had  been  going  on  in  Parlia- 
ment, and  resigned  themselves  to  await  and  aid  the  slow 
progress  of  a  political  and  religious  reformation  in  the 
kingdom,  numbers,  less  confident  or  less  patient,  pondered 
on  exile  as  their  best  resource,  and  turned  their  view  to  a 
new  home  on  the  Western  continent.  There  was  yet  a  third 
class,  who,  through  feeble  resolution  or  a  lingering  hope 
of  better  things,  deferred  the  sacrifices  which  they  scarce- 
ly flattered  themselves  that  they  should  ultimately  escape, 
and,  if  they  were  clergymen,  retained  their  preferments  by 
a  reluctant  obedience  to  the  canons.^  The  coquetry  of 
Buckingham  with  the  Puritans,  inspiring  false  hopes,  was 
not  without  efl'ect  to  excuse  indecision,  and  hinder  a  com- 
bined and  energetic  action. 

1  "We  have  feared  a  judgment  a  circulated  in  England  in  1629,  and  was 

longtime.   But  yet  we  are  safe.    There-  probably  from  the  pen  of  AVinthrop.    It 

fore  it  were  better  to  stay  till  it  come,  is  printed  in  Dr.  Young's  "  Chronicles  of 

And  either  we  may  fly  then,  or,  if  we  Massachusetts,"  271.     It  contains  preg- 

be  overtaken  in  it,  we  may  Avell  be  con-  nant  hints  as  to  the  object  of  the  emitrra- 

tent  to  suffer  with  such  a  Church  as  tion  proposed  in  it.     Of  course,  to  pub- 

ours  is."    Such  was  one  of  the  "  Objec-  hsh  the  plan  in  plain  language,  and  in  its 

tions  "  replied  to  in  a  paper,  which  was  full  extent,  would  have  been  to  defeat  it 


2G-i  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAXD.  [Book  I. 

Among  the  eminent  persons  Avho  had  reconciled  them- 
selves to  the  course  of  compromise  and  postponement  was 
Mr.  John  White,  an  important  name,  which  at 

The  Rever-  '  ,  ^        .  ^  ' 

end  Mr.  this  point  takcs  its  place  in  New-England  his- 
tory. White,  who,  since  the  second  year  of  King 
James's  reign,  had  been  rector  of  Trinity  Church  in  Dor- 
chester, was  a  man  widely  known  and  greatly  esteemed, 
alike  for  his  professional  character  and  his  public  spirit.^ 
The  subject  of  New-England  colonization,  much  canvassed 
everywhere  among  the  Puritans,  who  were  numerous  in 
the  part  of  the  kingdom  where  he  lived,  was  commended 
to  his  notice  in  a  special  form.  Dorchester,  near  the  Brit- 
ish Channel,  the  principal  town  of  the  shire,  furnished 
numbers  of  those  who  now  made  voyages  to  New  Eng- 
land for  fishing  and  trade ;  and  they  were  often  several 
months  upon  the  coast  without  opportunity  for  religious 
worship  or  instruction.  Mr.  White  interested  himself  / 
with  the  ship-owners  to  establish  a  settlement  where  the 
mariners  might  have  a  home  when  not  at  sea,  where  sup- 
plies might  be  provided  for  them  by  farming  and  hunting, 
and  where  they  might  be  brought  under  religious  influ- 
ences. The  result  of  the  conferences  was  the  formation- 
of  an  unincorporated  joint-stock  association,  under  the 
name  of  the  "  Dorchester  Adventurers,"  which  collected  a 
capital  of  three  thousand  pounds. 

/The  Dorchester  company  turned  its  attention  to  the 
spot  on  Cape  Ann  where  now  stands  the  town  of  Glouces- 
ThoDorches-  ^cr.  It  lias  been  mentioned  that  the  Council  for 
tcr  company,  ^v^j^.^^  England,  perpetually  embarrassed  by  the 
oppugnation  of  the  Virginia  Company  and  the  reasonable 
jealousy  of  Parliament,  had  recourse  to  a  variety  of  ex- 
pedients to  realize  the  benefits  vainly  expected  by  its  pro- 
jectors.    In  carrying  out  one  scheme,  that  of  a  division  of 

1  "  ^Ir.  Jolin  Wliitc,  a  famous  Piiri-  prpat  gravity,  presence,  and  inflncnce 
tan  divine,  usually  called  the  J'atriarch  in  his  party  for  several  years."  (Echard, 
of  Dorc/iester.   ......  He  was  a  man  of    History  of  England^  C53.) 


Chap.  VIIL]  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY.  285 

the  common  property  among  the  associates,  the  country 
about  Cape  Ann  was  assijjnecl  to  Lord  Sheffield, 

,  ,  .  .  1622- 

better  known  as  a  patriot  leader  under  his  later 
title  of  Earl  of  Mulgrave.^     Of  him  it  was  pur-      1^24. 
chased  for  the  people  of  New  Plymouth  by  Ed-     •'^"-  ^• 
ward  "Winslow,  when  in  England  on  the  business  of  that 
colony ;    and  they  in  turn   conveyed   to  White  and   his 
associates  such  a  site  as  was  wanted  for  their  purposes  of 
fishing  and  planting." 

The  Dorchester  company  had  probably  anticipated  this 
arrangement  by  despatching  a  party  of  fourteen  persons  to 
pass  the  winter.    They  carried  out  live  stock,  and 
erected  a  house,  with  stages  to  dry  fish,  and  vats  Plantation  at 
for  the  manufacture  of  salt.      Thomas   Gardner 
was  overseer  of  the  plantation,  and  John  Tilley  had  the 
fishery   in    charge.      Everything  went  wrong.     Mishaps 
befell  the  vessels.     The  price  of  fish  went  down.     The'' 
colonists,  "  being  ill  chosen  and  ill  commanded,  fell  into 
many  disorders,  and  did  the  company  little  service."     An 
attempt  was  made  to  retrieve  afiairs  by  putting 
the    colony    under    a    different    direction.       The 
Dorchester  partners  heard  of  "  some  religious  and  well- 
affbcted    persons   that    were  lately  removed  out  of   New 
Plymouth,  out  of  dislike  of  their  principles  of  rigid  sepa- 
ration, of  which  number  Mr.  Roger  Conant  was  one,  a 
religious,  sober,  and  prudent  gentleman,"  ^      He  was  then 
at  Nantasket,  with  Lyford  and  Oldham.^    The  partners 

1  See  page  222.  3  Hubbard,  History  of  New  England, 

2  "  There  hath  been  a-fishing  this  Chap.  XVHI.  —  It  is  not  known  when 
year  upon  the  coast  about  fifty  English  Conant  came  over,  or  to  what  part  of 
ships.  And  by  Cape  Ann  there  is  a  New  England.  Nothing  appears  in  any 
plantation  a-beginning  by  the  Dorches-  of  the  Plymouth  documents  to  confirm 
ter  men,  which  they  hold  of  those  of  Hubbard's  statement  that  Conant  was 
New  Plymouth,  who  also  by  them  have  one  of  the  party  of  Lyford  and  Oldham 
set  up  a  fishing-work.  Some  talk  there  at  Plymouth.  But  there  is  no  improb- 
is  of  some  other  pretended  plantations,  ability  in  the  statement  of  his  havin^ 
all  whose  proceedings  the  eternal  God  been  there,  and  Hubbard  was  likely  to 
protect  and  preserve."  (Smith,  Gen-  be  well  informed  upon  that  point, 
erall  Historic,  247,  edit.  1624.)  4  See  above,  p.  221. 


286  HISTORY  OF  new  ENGLAKD.  .    [Book  I. 

engaged  Conant  "to  be  their  govemor"  at  Cape  Ann,  with 
"  the  charge  of  all  their  affairs,  as  well  fishing  as  plant- 
ing." "With  Tiyford  they  agreed  that  he  should  "  be  the 
minister  of  the  place,"  while  Oldham,  "invited  to  trade 
for  them  with  the  Indians,"  preferred  to  remain  where  he 
was,  and  conduct  such  business  on  his  own  account. 
The  change  was  not  followed  by  the  profits  that  had 
been  hoped,  and  the  next  year  "  the  adventurers  were  so 
far  discouraged,  that  they  abandoned  the  further  prosecu- 
tion of  this  desira,  and  took  order  for  the  dissolv- 

1G2C. 

ing  of  the  company  on  land,  and  sold  away  their 
shipping  and  other  provisions."  ^  Another  seemed  added 
to  the  list  of  frustrated  adventures  in  New  England. 

But  Mr.  White  did  not  despair  of  its  renewal.  All 
along,  it  is  likely,  he  had  regarded  it  with  an  interest 
different  from  what  had  yet  been  avowed.  At  his  in- 
stance, when  "  most  part  of  the  land-men  returned,"  "  a 
few  of  the  most  honest  and  industrious  resolved  to  stay 
behind,  and  to  take  charge  of  the  cattle  sent  over  the  year 
before.     And  not  likinsr  their  seat  at  Cape  Ann, 

Removal  to  c  ^ 

Nau.nkcag.    clioscn  cspccially  for  the  supposed  commodity  of 
,  fishing,  they  transported  themselves  to  Nahum- 
keike,  about  four  or  five  leagues  distant  to  the  southwest 
from  Cape  xVnn."~ 

White  wrote  to  Conant,  exhorting  him  "  not  so  to  de- 
sert the  business,  faithfully  promising  that,  if  himself, 
with  three  others,  whom  he  knew  to  be  honest  and  pru- 
dent men,  viz.  John  Woodbury,  John  Balch,  and  Peter 
Palfrey,  employed  by  the  adventurers,  would  stay  at 
Naumkeag,  and  give  timely  notice  thereof,  he  would  pro- 
vide a  patent  for  them,  and  likewise  send  them  whatever 

1  Hubbard,  Chap.  XVIII. —  Planter's  pers,"  &c.     Its  authorship  is,  on  satisfac- 

Plea,  Chap.  VII.,  VIII.     The  Planter's  tory  grounds,  attributed  to  Mi\  White. 

Plea,  published  anonymously  in  London,  It  urges,  for  encouragement  to  coloni- 

in  1G.30, -was  rcprintcil,in  18.38,  by  Mr.  zalion,  the  example  of  the  Plymouth 

Force,  of  Washington,  in   the   second  colony  (Chap.  VII.). 
volume  of  his  "  Tracts  and  other  Pa-        2  fbid.^  Chap.  IX. 


Chap.  VIIL]  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY.  287 

they  should  write  for,  either  men,  or  provision,  or  goods 
wherewith  to  trade  with  the  Indians."  ^  With  difficulty 
Conant  prevailed  upon  his  companions  to  persevere.  They 
"  stayed  to  the  hazard  of  their  lives."  ^     Wood- 

.  1627. 

bury  was  sent  to  England  for  supplies. 

"  The  business  came  to  agitation  afresh  in  London,  and, 
being  at  first  approved  by  some  and  disliked  by  others, 
by  argument  and  disputation  it  grew  to  be  more  vulgar ; 
insomuch  that,  some  men  showing  some  good  affection  to 
the  work,  and  offering  the  help  of  their  purses  if  fit  men 
might  be  procured  to  go  over,  inquiry  was  made  whether 
any  would  be  willing  to  engage  their  persons  in  the  voy- 
age. By  this  inquiry  it  fell  out  that  among  others  they 
lighted  at  last  on  Master  Endicott,  a  man  well  known  to 
divers  persons  of  good  note,  who  manifested  much  will- 
ingness to  accept  of  the  offer  as  soon  as  it  was  tendered, 
which  gave  great  encouragement  to  such  as  were  upon 
the  point  of  resolution  to  set  on  this  work  of  erecting  a 
new  colony  upon  the  old  foundation."^ 

The  scheme  on  foot  was  no  longer  one  of  Dorchester 
fishermen  looking  for  a  profitable  exercise  of  their  trade. 
It  had  "come  to  agitation  in  London,"  where  "some  men" 
had  offered  "  the  help  of  their  purses,"  and  a  man  of  con- 
sequence, Humphrey,  probably  from  a  county  as  distant  as 
Lincoln,  was  already,  or  very  soon  after,  Treasurer  of  the 
fund.^  Matters  were  ripe  for  the  step  of  securing  a  do- 
main for  a  colony,  and  the  dimensions  of  the  domain 
show  that  the  colony  was  not  intended  to  be  a  small  one. 
A  grant  of  lands  extending  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Western  Ocean,  and  in  width  from  a  line  of  latitude  three 
miles  north  of  the  River  Merrimac  to  a  line  three  miles 


1  Hubbard,  Chap.  XVIII.  ciates  when  Conant  was  first  written  to : 

2  Conant's  petition  of  May  28,  1671,  "Mr.  White  engaged  Mr.  Humphrey, 
in  the  Massachusetts  archives.  the  Treasurer  of  the  joint  adventurers, 

3  Planter's  Plea,  Chap.  IX.  to  write  to  him  in  their  names,"  &c. 

4  Hubbard   (Chap.  XVHI.)   makes  But  I  should  not  think  it  entirely  safe 
Humphrey  the  Treasurer  of  the  Asso-  to  rely  upon  this. 


Orant  of 
Massacliii- 


288  HISTORY  OF  new  England.  [Book  i. 

south  of  the  Charles,^  was  obtained  from  the  Council  for 

Xew  England   by   "  Sir  Henry  Roswell  and  Sir 

March  19.  Joliu  Youug,   kuights,   and    Thomas   Southcote, 

John    Humphrey,    John    Endicott,    and    Simon 

the  coiTcii    ^^'hitcomb,   gentlemen,"   for   themselves,    "  their 

for  New       heirs,  and  associates."     Roswell  and  Yomi":  were 

England.  ^ 

gentlemen  of  Devon,  Southcote  was  probably  of 
the  same  county,  and  Whitcomb  is  believed  to  have  been 
a  London  merchant. 

Gorges,  though  not  in  the  counsels  of  the  patentees, 
supposed  himself  to  understand  their  object.  Having  men- 
tioned the  angry  dissolution  by  King  Charles  of  his  second 
Parliament,  and  his  imprisonment  of  some  of  the  patriot 
leaders,  he  proceeds  to  say,  that  these  transactions  "  took 
all  hope  of  reformation  of  church  government  from  many 
not  affecting  episcopal  jurisdiction,  nor  the  usual  practice 
of  the  Common  Prayers  of  the  Church ;  whereof  there 
were  several  sorts,  though  not  agreeing  among  themselves, 
yet  all  of  like  dislike  of  those  particulars.  Some  of  the  dis- 
creeter  sort,  to  avoid  what  they  found  themselves  subject 
unto,  made  use  of  their  friends  to  procure  from  the  Coun- 
cil for  the  affairs  of  New  England  to  settle  a  colony  within 
their  limits ;  to  which  it  pleased  the  thrice-honored  Lord 
of  Warwick  to  write  to  me,  then  at  Plymouth,  to  con- 
descend that  a  patent  might  be  granted  to  such  as  then 
sued  for  it.  Whereupon  I  gave  my  approbation,  so  far 
forth  as  it  might  not  be  prejudicial  to  my  son  E-obert 
Gorgcs's  interests,  whereof  he  had  a  patent  under  the  seal 
of  the  Council.  Hereupon,  there  was  a  grant  passed  as 
was  thought  reasonable."  ^ 

1  The  patentees  among  whom  the  the  Secretary  shall  write  out  a  copy  of 
eastern  coast  of  New  England  had  been  the  foniier  grant  to  the  Earl  of  War- 
partitioned  six  years  before,  surrendered  wick  and  others,  which  was  by  them 
their  claims  (see  above,  pp.  222,  285).  resigned  to  this  company,  to  be  pre- 
I  confidently  put  this  construction  on  sented  to  his  Lordship."  (Massachu- 
the  ff)llowing  record  of  the  meeting  of  setts  Colony  Records,  I.  53.) 
the  Company,  September  29,  1629,  2  Gorges,  Briefe  Narration,  &c., 
viz. :  "  It  is  thought  Gt  and  ordered  that  Chap.  XXVI. 


Chap.  VIII.]  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY.  289 

After  three  months,  Endicott,  one  of  the  six  patentees, 
was  despatched,  hi  charge  of  a  small  party,  to  su- 
persede Conant  at  Naumkeag  as  local  manager.^ 
Woodbury  had  preceded  them.     They  arrived  at  the  close 
of  summer.     The  persons  quartered  on  the  spot,  the  re- 
mains  of  Conant's    company,    were  disposed   to  joimEndi- 
question  the  claims  of  the  new-comers.     But  the  ^""'^com- 

T-  pany  at 

dispute  was  amicably  composed,  and,  in  commem-  ^aiem. 
oration  of  its  adjustment,  the  place  took  the  name 
of  "  Salem,"  the  Plebrew  word  for  peaceful.     The  colony, 
made  up  from  the  two  sources,  consisted  of  "  not  much 
above  fifty  or  sixty  persons,""  none  of  them  of  special  im- 
portance except  Endicott,  who  was  destined  to  act  for  near- 
ly forty  years  a  conspicuous  part  in  New  England  history.^ 
Before    the  winter,    an    exploring    j)arty  either  began, 
or  made  preparations  for,  a  settlement  at  Mishawum,  now  / 
Charlestown.^      With   another    party,    Endicott,    during 
Morton's  absence  in  England,  visited  his  diminished  com- 
pany at  Merry-Mount,  or,   as  Endicott  called  it.  Mount 
Dago7i^  "  caused  their  May-pole  to  be  cut  down,  and  re- 

1  Mr.  Haven  has  satisfactorily  shown  own  charge  " ;  from  which  it  has  been 
that  the  first  page  of  the  Records  of  inferred  that  they  were  not  of  Endi- 
the  Company  of  Massachusetts  Bay  re-  cott's  company.  (Everett,  Address  at 
lates  to  preparations  for  the  voyage  of  Charlestown,  June  28,  1830.)  The 
Endicott.  (Arch^eologia  Americana,  visitors  found  at  Mishawum  "  an  Eng- 
III.  3.)  lish    pahsaded    and    thatched    house, 

2  Planter's  Plea,  Chap.  IX.  wherein    lived    Thomas     Walford,    a 

3  Gott,  Davenport,  Trask,  and  Ralph  smith."  —  It  is  greatly  to  be  regretted, 
and  Richard  Sprague,  companions  of  that  for  this  brief  but  very  interesting 
Endicott,  as  well  as  Conant,  Palfrey,  and  period  we  have  so  little  information 
Woodbury,  of  the  "  old  planters,"  were  except  from  the  unsatisfactory  narra- 
afterwards  Deputies  to  the  General  tive  of  Hubbard.  It  is  an  important 
Court.  Davenport  was  a  lieutenant  in  fact,  however,  that  he  must  have  con- 
the  Pequod  war,  and  subsequently  cap-  versed  much  with  Roger  Conant,  who 
tain  of  the  fort  in  Boston  harbor.  lived  to  old  age  and  was  his  neighbor. 

4  According  to  the  Charlestown  rec-  It  would  be  curious  to  point  out  traces 
ords,  —  which,  however,  are  not  a  docu-  of  his  adoption  of  Conant's  prejudices, 
ment  of  the  first  authenticity,  not  hav-  as  well  as  other  tokens  of  the  state  of 
ing  been  made  till  more  than  thirty  mind  in  which  he  wrote,  if  the  discus- 
years  afterwards,  —  some  of  the  emi-  sion  were  worth  the  space  which  the 
grants  of  1628  had  come  over  "  at  their  necessary  citations  would  occupy. 

VOL.  I.  25 


290  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

buked  them  for  their  profaneness,  and  admonished  them 
to  look  there  should  be  better  walking,"  The  winter 
proved  sickly ;  an  "  infection  that  grew  among  the  passen- 
gers at  sea,  spread  also  among  them  ashore,  of  which  many 
died,  some  of  the  scurvy,  other  of  an  infectious  fever." 
Endicott  sent  to  Plymouth  for  medical  assistance,  and 
Fuller,  the  physician  of  that  place,  made  a  visit  to  Salem.^ 

The  new  Dorchester  Company,^  like  that  which  had 
preceded  it,  and  like  the  company  of  London  Adventur- 
cimrteroftiio  crs  coucemed  in  the  settlement  at  Plymouth,  was 
Governor  and  ^^^  ^  voluutary  partnership,  with  no   corporate 

Company  of  ^      a.  l  '  x 

Massachu-     powcrs.^      Tho    extensive    acquaintance   of   Mr. 

setts  Bay.  ■"■  . 

1C29.  White  with  persons  disaffected  to  the  rulers  in 
church  and  state  was  probably  the  immediate  oc- 
casion of  advancing  the  business  another  step.  Materials 
for  a  powerful  combination  existed  in  different  parts  of  the 
kingdom,  and  they  were  now  brought  together  for  united 
action.  The  Company  having  been  "  much  enlarged,"  ^ 
a  royal  charter  was  solicited  and  obtained,  creating  a 
corporation  under  the  name  of  the  "  Governor  and  Com- 
pany of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  in  New  England."^     This 

1  Bradford,  History,  238,  203.  ing  of  a  reasonable  sum  of  money,  a 

2  I  follow  usage  in  employing  this  patent  was  granted  with  large  encour- 
namc  in  relation  to  Roswell  and  his  five  agements  every  way  by  his  most  ex- 
associates,  though  I  am  more  than  doubt-  cellent  INIajesty."  The  fact  that  five 
ful  as  to  the  correctness  of  the  applica-  persons  joined  Endicott  in  securing  the 
tion  to  them.  Their  patent  is  lost.  It  territory  of  Massachusetts  by  a  deed 
docs  not  appear  that  any  one  of  the  from  the  Council,  while  measures  were 
patentees  was  a  Dorchester  man.  Nor  in  progress  for  obtaining  the  royal  char- 
do  I  know  any  other  authority  than  ter,  is  passed  over  as  immaterial. 
Hubbard's  for  the  statement  of  their  ^  Cradock's  Letter  of  Februarj'  16, 
being  persons  "  about  Dorchester."  1G29,  to  Endicott. 

•^  The  silence  of  the  "Planter's  Plea"  ^  Bolh  these  proper  names  were  used 

respecting  the  patent  from  the  Council  in  early  times  in  dilFerent  senses.    Gov- 

for  New  England  to  Sir  Henry  Koswell  ernor  Winthrop,  when  he  entitled  his 

and  his  five  associates,  favors  the  idea  work  a  "  History  of  i\ew  England"  in- 

that  it  was  taken  simply  as  a  transiliou  tended   by   that  name   to   denote   the 

step.     Its  language,  next  following  the  ^Massachusetts  Colony,  and  this  appears 

mention  of  the   engagement  of  Endi-  to  have  been  the  prevailing  use  for  some 

cott,  is  (Chap.  IX.) :  "Hereupon  divers  years   after  its  settlement.      In    1G44, 

persons  having  subscribed  for  the  rais-  Eoger  Williams's  colony  was  called  in 


Chap.  VIII.]  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY.  291 

is  the  instrument  under  ^yhich  the  Colony  of  Massachu- 
setts continued  to  conduct  its  affairs  for  fifty-five  years. 
The  patentees  named  in  it  were  Roswell  and  his  five  asso- 
ciates, with  twenty  other  persons,  of  whom  White  was 
not  one.^  It  gave  power  for  ever  to  the  freemen  of  the 
Company  to  elect  annually,  from  their  own  number,  a 
Governor,  Deputy-Governor,  and  eighteen  Assistants,  on 
the  last  Wednesday  of  Easter  term,  and  to  make  laws  and 
ordinances,  not  repugnant  to  the  laws  of  England,  for 
their  own  benefit  and  the  government  of  persons  inhabit- 
ing their  territory.  Four  meetings  of  the  Company  were 
to  be  held  in  a  year,  and  others  might  be  convened  in  a 
manner  prescribed.  Meetings  of  the  Governor,  Deputy- 
Governor,  and  Assistants  were  to  be  held  once  a  month, 
or  oftener.  The  Governor,  Deputy-Governor,  and  any 
two  Assistants,  were  authorized,  but  not  required,  to  ad- 
minister to  freemen  the  oaths  of  supremacy  and  allegiance. 
The  Company  might  transport  settlers  not  "  restrained 
by  special  name."  They  had  authority  to  admit  new  asso- 
ciates, and  establish  the  terms  of  their  admission,  and  elect 
and  constitute  such  officers  as  they  should  see  fit  for  the 
ordering  and  managing  of  their  afiairs.  They  were  em- 
powered to  "  encounter,  repulse,  repel,  and  resist  by  force 
of  arms,  as  well  by  sea  as  by  land,  and  by  all  fitting  ways 
and  means  whatsoever,  all  such  person  and  persons  as 
should  at  any  time  thereafter  attempt  or  enterprise  the 
destruction,  invasion,  detriment,  or  annoyance  to  the  said 
plantation  or  inhabitants."  Nothing  was  said  of  religious 
liberty.  The  government  may  have  relied  upon  its  power 
to  restrain  it,  and  the  emigrants  on  their  distance  and 
obscurity  to  protect  it.^ 

its  charter  " Providence  Plantations   in  mouth.     At  least  five  others  of  those 

New  England."    Anciently,  by  Massa-  Adventurers,  viz.  White  (of  London), 

chusetts  Baij  was  commonly  meant  what  Pocock,  Sharp,  Revell,  and  Andrews, 

is  now  often  called  Boston  Bay,  within  were  subsequently  members  of  the  Mas- 

Nahant  and  Point  AUerton.  sachusetts  Company.  (Mass.  Hist.  Coll., 

1  One  of  the  twenty,  GofTe,  had  for-  III.  48.)     The  charter  is  said  to  have 

merly  been  among  the  Adventurers  in  cost  £2,000.     (Hutch.  Hist.,  II.  1.) 

partnership  with  the  planters  at  Ply-  ^  The  charter  is  in  Hazard,  I.  239. 


292  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

The  lirst  step  of  the  new  corporation  was  to  organize  a 
government  for  its  colony.  It  determined  to  place  the  local 
April  30.  administration  in  the  hands  of  thirteen  Counsel- 
TZ'ZTy  lors,  to  retain  their  offices  for  one  year.  Of  these, 
at  Salem.  scvcn  bcsidcs  the  Governor  (in  which  ofRce  Endi- 
cott  was  continued)  were  to  be  appointed  by  the  Company 
at  home ;  these  eight  were  to  choose  three  others  ;  and  the 
whole  number  was  to  be  made  up  by  the  addition  of  such 
as  should  be  designated  by  the  persons  on  the  spot  at  the 
time  of  Endicott's  arrival,  described  as  "  old  planters."  ^ 
A  proposal  had  iust  been  accepted  from  certain 

March  2  ^         ^  ^  i  i  •         i  i 

"Boston  men,"  to  interest  themselves  m  the  adven- 
ture to  the  amount  of  five  hundred  pounds,  being  a  hun- 
dred pounds  in  addition  to  what,  it  appears,  they  had  pre- 
viously promised,  "and  to  provide  able  men  to  send  over."^ 
Unfortunately,  no  letter  has  been  preserved  of  those 
sent  by  Endicott  to  England  at  this  interesting  juncture. 

There  are,  however,  two  letters  addressed  to  him 

Instructions 

fronitho       by  the  Company,  and  one  by  Cradock,  appointed 

Company.  •  ^  ^  ^  •  f  r~\  -itr*    i 

m  the  charter  to  be  its  first  Grovernor.  With 
various  directions  as  to  the  details  of  his  administration, 
they  speak  of  the  "  propagation  of  the  Gospel "  as  "  the 
thing  they  do  profess  above  all  to  be  their  aim  in  settling 
this  plantation."  They  enjoin  the  keeping  of  "  a  diligent 
eye  over  their  own  people,  that  they  live  unblamable  and 
without  reproof."  They  forbid  the  planting  of  tobacco, 
except  under  severe  restrictions.     They  order  satisfaction 

^  Records    in    Arohacologia    Ameri-  Tvitli  often  negotiation,  so  ripened  that, 

cana,  III.  SO"",  30?.  in  the  year  1628,  we  procured  a  pa- 

2  Mass.  Colonial  Records,  I.  28.  —  tent,"  &c.  (Letter  to  the  Countess 
Dudley,  perhaps  one  of  these  Boston  of  Lincoln.)  From  the  language, 
men,  says:  "About  the  year  1G27,  "about  the  year  1G27,"  I  think  it  is 
some  friends,  being  together  in  Lincoln-  natural  to  infer,  that  the  subject  was 
shire,  fell  into  discourse  about  New  canvassed  in  Lincolnshire  as  well  bc- 
Eiigland,  and  the  planting  of  the  Gos-  fore  as  after  that  year.  It  was  in  1G27 
I)el  there ;  and  after  some  deliberation,  that  White  wrote  from  Dorsetshire, 
we  imparted  our  rea.sons,  by  letters  and  urging  Conant  to  remain  where  he  was. 
messages,  to  some  in  London  and  the  According  to  the  old  style,  which  Dud- 
West  Country,  where  it  was  likewise  ley  used,  the  patent  was  procured,  as 
deliberately  thought  upon, and  at  length,  he  says,  "  in  the  year  1C28." 


Chap.  VIII.]  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY.  293 

to  be  given  to  the  "  old  planters,"  by  the  offer  of  incorpora- 
tion into  the  Company  and  of  a  share  in  the  lands.  They 
speak  of  unsnccessful  negotiations  with  Oldham,  who  as- 
serted a  claim  nnder  the  patent  of  Robert  Gorges,  and  give 
orders  for  anticipating  him  in  taking  possession  of  Massa- 
chusetts Bay.  They  direct  that  persons  who  may  prove 
"  not  conformable  to  their  government,"  or  otherwise  dis- 
agreeable, shall  not  be  suffered  "  to  remain  within  the 
limits  of  their  grant,"  but  be  shipped  to  England.  They 
prescribe  a  distribution  of  the  servants  among  families, 
with  a  view  to  domestic  order  and  Christian  instruction 
and  discipline.  They  enjoin  a  just  settlement  with  the 
natives  for  lands.  And  they  transmit  a  form  of  oaths  to 
be  taken  by  the  Governor  and  members  of  the  Council. 

After  the  organization  under  the  charter,  no  time  was 
lost  in  despatching  a  reinforcement  of  colonists.      Six  ves- 
sels were  prepared,  and  license  was  obtained  from      jcog. 
the  Lord  Treasurer  for  the  embarkation  of  "  eigh-    ^p'"  ^^• 
ty  women  and  maids,  twenty-six  children,  and  three  hun- 
dred men,  with  victuals,  arms,  and  tools,  and  necessary 
apparel,"  and  with  "  one  hundred  and  forty  head  of  cattle, 
and  forty  goats."    A  committee  of  the  Company  were  care- 
ful "  to  make  plentiful  provision  of  godly  ministers."    Mr. 
Skelton,  Mr.  Higginson,  and  Mr.  Bright,  members  of  the 
Council,  with  Mr.  Smith,  another  minister,  sailed  jj^y  4^  u, 
in  the  first  three  vessels,  which  reached  Salem  nigginson's 
about  the  same  time,  and  were  soon  followed  by  sa"em7^' 
the  residue  of  the  fleet.     Mr.  Graves,  another  of    •'""^* 
the  Counsellors,  was  employed  by  the  associates  as  an 
engineer.      Immediately  on  arriving,   he   proceeded   with 
"  some  of  the  Company's  servants  under  his  care,  and  some 
others,"  to  Mishawum,  where  he  laid  out  a  town.^    Bright, 

1  This   very  prompt   movement   to-  a    similar    meaning.      The    patent    of 

wards  Charlestown  was  connected  with  Robert  Gorges  which  brought  him  to 

the   claim   of  Oldham.     And   not  im-  Weymouth  in  1G23  (see  above,  p.  206) 

probably   the   visit   made   to   that   pe-  was  for  ten  miles   "on  the  northeast 

ninsula  in   the  previous    autumn   had  side  of  Massachusetts  Bay,"  according 

25* 


294.  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

Avho  was  one  of  his  party,  returned  to  England  in  the 
following  summer,  dissatisfied,  probably,  with  the  eccle- 
siastical proceedings  which  had  taken  place.  Smith  went 
for  the  present  to  the  fishing  station  at  Nantasket. 

Hisrofinson  wrote  home  :  "When  we  came  first  to  Naum- 
keag,  we  found  about  half  a  score  houses,  and  a  fair  house 
newly  built  for  the  Governor.  AVe  found  also  abundance 
of  corn  planted  by  them,  very  good  and  well-liking.  And 
■vve  brought  with  us  about  two  hundred  passengers  and 
planters  more,  which,  by  common  consent  of  the  old  plant- 
ers, were  all  combined  together  into  one  body  politic,  under 
the  same  governor.  There  are  in  all  of  us,  both  old  and 
new  planters,  about  three  hundred,  whereof  two  hundred 
of  them  are  settled  at  Naumkeag,  now  called  Salem,  and 
the  rest  have  planted  themselves  at  Masathuset's  Bay, 
beginning  to  build  a  town  there,  which  we  do  call  Char- 
ton,  or  Charlestown But  that  which  is  our  great- 
est comfort  and  means  of  defence  above  all  other  is,  that 
we  have  here  the  true  religion  and  holy  ordinances  of 
Almighty  God  taught  among  us.  Thanks  be  to  God,  we 
have  here  plenty  of  preaching  and  diligent  catechizing, 
with  strict  and  careful  exercise  and  good  and  commenda- 
ble orders  to  bring  our  people  into  a  Christian  conversa- 
tion with  whom  we  have  to  do  withal.  And  thus  we 
doubt  not  but  God  will  be  with  us ;  and  if  God  be  with 
us,  who  can  be  against  us  ]  "  ^ 

Of  the  new-comers,  Skelton  and  Higginson,  who  had 
been  Non-conformist  clergymen  of  the  Church  of  England, 
were  the  only  persons  that  exerted  a  material  influence  on 
the  affairs  of  the  infant  colony.^     Of  the  early  life  of  the 

to  n.  contemporaneous  meaning  of  that  Jolm  Oldliam,  tlic  other  to  Sir  William 

name  ;  that  is,  for  a  territory  extending  Brereton.      The    JMassaihusctts    Coni- 

from  Cliarlcs  River  to  Nahant.     At  the  pany   always   maintained   that   Kobcrt 

death  of  llobert  Gorges,  his  right,  better  Gorges's  patent  was  not  good  in  law. 
or  worse,  was  inherited  by  his  brother,  l  Higginson,  New  England's  Flanta- 

John,  who,  two  months  before  the  char-  tion,  123,  121. 

Utr  of  the  Massa<.-husetts  Company,  sold         2  Of  the  five  persons  associated  with 

it  iu  two  j)arts,  one  to  John  DorrcU  and  them  by  the  Company  as  Counsellors  to 


Chap.  VIIL]  MASSACHUSETTS   BAY.  295 

former,  scarcely  anything  is  known ;   he  had  been  edu- 
cated at  Clare  Hall,  Cambridge,  and  Endicott  had  samuei 
"  formerly  received  much  good  by  his  ministry."  ^  '^'^'^"°"- 
Higginson,  of  Jesus  College  and  St.  John's,  Cam-  piancis 
bridge,   and  subsequently  rector  of  one  of  the  "'-s'"son. 
churches  of  Leicester,  had  been  deprived  of  his  benefice 
for  non-conformity.     After  the  practice  of  the  time,  he 
became  a  lecturer^  and  was  so  employed  among  his  former 
parishioners  when  he  received  the  application  of  the  Mas- 
sachusetts Company  to  proceed  to  their  colony.^ 

A  day   within  four  weeks  from   their  arrival  was  ap- 
pointed for  the  choice  of  a  pastor  and  a  teacher ;  and,  after 
prayer,  fasting,   and  a  sermon,  Mr.  Skelton  was  Ecciesiasti- 
cliosen  to  the  former  office,  and  Mr.  Higginson  2^01^"' 
to  the  latter.     Having  accepted  the  trust,  they    •'"'>'-°- 
were  set  apart   to  it  with  simple  solemnity.      Mr.   Hig- 
ginson and  three  or  four  of  the  gravest  men  laid  their 
hands  on  Mr. 'Skelton's  head  and  prayed,  and  then,  for 
the  consecration  of  Mr.  Higginson,  the  same  service  was 
repeated  by  his  colleague.     The  next  step  was  to  gather 
a  church,  or  society  of  communicants.      Mr.  Higginson 
drew  up  "  a  confession  of  faith  and  church  covenant,  ac- 


Endicott,  only  Samuel  Sharpe  is  known  tans,  Vol.  11.  Chap.  IV.)     Laud  broke 

to  have  remained  in  the  colony.     John  uj)  the  system  in   1633.     He  said  the 

and  Samuel  Browne  were  sent  home  lecturers   were    "  the   most   dangerous 

after  only  five  or  six  weeks,  under  cir-  enemies  of  the  state." 

cumstances    presently    to    be   related.  3  '»  23d  of  March,  1628  [1629].      At 

Bright,    as   has   been    mentioned,    re-  this  meeting,  intimation  was  given  by 

mained  scarcely   a   year,   and    Graves  Mr.  Nowell,  by  letters  from  Mr.  Isaac 

soon  disappears  from  the  documents.  Johnson,    that   one   Llr.    Higgeson,   of 

1  Cradock's  letter  to  Endicott,  April  Leicester,  an  able  minister,  proffers  to 
17,  1629.  go  to  our  plantation;    who  being  ap- 

2  One  method  taken  by  the  Puritans  proved  for  a  reverend,  grave  minister, 
to  supply  the  deficiency  of  evangehcal  fit  for  our  present  occasions,  it  was 
preachers,  of  which  they  complained,  thought  by  those  present  to  entreat  Mr. 
was  to  employ  lecturers  to  preach  on  John  Humphrey  to  ride  presently  to 
Sunday  afternoons  and  market-dajs.  Leicester,  and,  if  Mr.  Higgeson  may 
They  were  supported  from  funds  raised  conveniently  be  had  to  go  this  present 
by  voluntary  contribution,  and  held  by  AW'age,  that  he  should  deal  with  him." 
trustees.      (Neal,  History  of  the  Purl-  (Mass.  Col.  Kec,  I.  3  7.) 


296  msTORY  OF  new  England.  [Book  i. 

cording  to  Scripture,"  of  which  copies  were  delivered  to 
thirty  persons,  and  an  invitation  Avas  despatched  to  the 
churcli  at  Plymouth  to  send  messengers  to  witness  the  fur- 
ther proceeding.  The  day  appointed  for  it  having 
arrived,  the  two  ministers  prayed  and  preached ; 
thirty  persons  assented  to  the  covenant,  and  associated 
themselves  as  a  church ;  the  ministers,  whose  dedication 
to  the  sacred  office  had  appeared  incomplete  till  it  was 
made  by  a  church  constituted  by  mutual  covenant,  were 
ordained  to  their  several  offices  by  the  imposition  of  the 
hands  of  some  of  the  brethren  appointed  by  the  church  ; 
and  Governor  Bradford  "  and  some  others  with  him,  com- 
ing by  sea,"  and  being  "  hindered  by  cross  winds  that 
they  could  not  be  there  at  the  beginning  of  the  day,  came 
into  the  assembly  afterward,  and  gave  them  the  right  hand 
of  fellowship,  wishing  all  prosperity  and  a  blessed  success 
unto  such  good  beginnings."  -^ 

How  much  of  the  church  system  thus  introduced  had 
already  been  resolved  upon  before  the  colonists  of  the 
Massachusetts  Company  left  England,  and  how  long  a 
time,  if  any,  previous  to  their  emigration  such  arrange- 
ments were  made,  are  questions  which  we  have  probably 
now  insufficient  means  to  determine.  Thus  much  is  cer- 
tain; that,  when  Skclton^  and  Pligginson  reached  Salem, 
they  found  Endicott,  M'ho  was  not  only  their  Governor, 
but  one  of  the  six  considerable  men  who  had  made  the 
first  movement  for  a  patent,  fully  prepared  for  the  eccle- 
siastical organization  which  was  presently  instituted.  In 
1029.  the  month  before  their  arrival,  Endicott,  in  a  let- 
May  n.  ^^^,  ^Q  Bradford,  thanking  him  for  the  visit  of 
Fuller,^  had  said :  "  I  rejoice  much  that  I  am  by  him  sat- 
isfied toiicliing  your  judgments  of  the  outward  form  of 
God's  worship  ;  it  is,  as  far  as  I  yet  gather,  no  other  than 
is  warranted  by  the  evidence  of  truth,  and  the  same  which 
I  have  professed  and  maintained  ever  since  the  Lord  in 

'  Morton,  Memorial,  IIG.  '•' Sec  Vol.  II.  p.  83,  note  5.  ^  Bradford,  205. 


Chap.  VIII.]  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY.  297 

mercy  revealed  himself  unto  me."  And  the  promptness 
with  which  the  system  was  adopted  in  Salem  favors  the 
idea  of  previous  concert  respecting  it,  at  least  on  the  part 
of  the  leading  men. 

But  whether  distinctly  preconcerted  in  England  or  not,^ 
and  whether  anticipated  by  a  greater  or  smaller  portion 
of  the  emigrants,  some  such  system,  under  the  circum- 
stances, could  scarcely  have  failed  to  grow  up  on  the  soil. 
To  persons  with  minds  so  prepossessed,  a  six  weeks'  voy- 
age away  from  familiar  scenes  must  needs  have  opened 
a  long  religious  experience."  In  a  North  American 
wild,  the  power  of  conventional  associations  was  broken. 
The  minds  of  the  serious  exiles  could  find  nothing  to 
repose  upon  but  the  naked  simplicity  of  evangelical 
truth.  Sincerely  desirous,  above  all  things  else,  to  know 
and  to  do  God's  will,  they  had  heretofore  found  their  in- 
quiries and  their  service  obstructed  and  restrained.  They 
had  long  led  a  troubled  life  for  conscience'  sake.  They 
had  now  made  well-nigh  the  last  sacrifice,  placing  a  wide 
ocean  between  themselves  and  most  earthly  objects  of 
their  love.  Having  paid  the  heavy  price,  why  should  they 
not  fully  enjoy  the  purchase]  Withdrawn  beyond  the 
reach  of  persecutors,  why  leave  the  strange  liberty  unused  1 
Why  not  betake  themselves  at  once  to  the  letter  of  Scrip- 

1  Cotton  Mather  relates  that,  "tak-  Ha,  Book  III.  Part  II.  Chap.  I.)  It  is 
ing  the  last  look  at  his  native  shore,  Hig-  not  necessary  here  to  raise  the  general 
ginson  said,  '  We  will  not  say,  as  the  question  of  the  trustworthiness  of  the 
Separatists  were  wont  to  say  at  their  testimony  of  Cotton  Mather.  It  is 
leaving  of  England,  "  Farewell,  Baby-  enough  to  say,  that,  in  this  instance,  he 
Ion ;  fiirewell,  Rome  ! "  But  we  will  say,  is  testifying,  in  1697,  to  words  repre- 
Farewell,  dear  England!  Farewell,  sented  to  have  been  uttered  in  1G29, 
the  Church  of  God  in  England,  and  all  on  the  other  side  of  the  Avater. 
the  Christian  friends  there.  We  do  not  ^  On  the  voyage,  Higginson  had  en- 
go  to  New  England  as  separatists  from  joyed  some  prelibations  of  his  liberty 
the  Church  of  England,  though  we  can-  "  with  singing  a  psalm,  and  prayer  that 
not  but  separate  from  the  corruptions  was  not  read  out  of  a  book."  (Relation 
in  it.  But  we  go  to  practise  the  positive  of  the  Last  Voyage,  &c.,  in  Hutchin- 
part  of  church  reformation,  and  propa-  son's  Collection,  &c.,  46.)  —  See  Win- 
gate  the  Gospel  in  America.'"  (Magna-  throp,  in  Hutchinson's  Collection,  130. 


298  HISTORY  OF  new  England.  [Book  i. 

ture,  and  as  freely  as  the  primitive  disciples,  as  freely  as 
if  neither  mitre  nor  canon  had  ever  been  made,  erect 
their  religious  institutions  after  what  they  understood  to 
be  the  pattern  in  the  authentic  Gospel  ?  In  their  position, 
such  words  as  Non-conformity  and  Separatism  ceased  to  be 
significant.  It  was  of  great  moment  that  they  should 
conform  to  the  Bible.  It  was  of  very  little  moment  if,  in 
doing  so,  they  should  be  found  to  be  separated  in  dis- 
cipline and  usages  from  a  Church  thousands  of  miles 
away.  As  one  party  after  another  of  earnest  men  came 
to  confer  together  on  New  England  soil,  it  is  striking  to 
observe  to  what  an  extent  they  had  grown  to  be  of  one 
mind  respecting  the  duty  of  rejecting  the  whole  constitu- 
tion of  the  English  Establishment.  If  scruples  presented 
themselves,  they  were  dismissed  with  summary  decision ; 
not  a  fragment  of  the  hierarchical  order  found  a  place 
in  the  fabric  of  the  New  England  churches. 

The  transaction  which  determined  the  religious  constitu- 
tions of  New  England  gave  offence  to  two  of  the  Counsel- 
^    , .     ,  lors,  John  and  Samuel  Browne.     Considerinoj  the 

Expulsion  of  c 

two  male-     late  proceedings,  as  well  they  might  do,  to  amount 

cements.  .  "  •T1T1 

to  a  secession  from  the  national  establishment,  they, 
with  some  others  of  the  same  mind,  set  up  a  separate  wor- 
ship, conducted  according  to  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer. 
Endicott  and  his  friends  were  in  no  mood  to  tolerate  this 
schism.  The  brothers,  brought  before  the  Governor,  said 
that  the  ministers  "  were  Separatists,  and  would  be  Ana- 
baptists." The  ministers  replied,  "  that  they  came  away 
from  the  Common  Prayer  and  ceremonies,  and  had  suffered 
much  for  their  non-conformity  in  their  native  land,  and 
therefore,  being  in  a  place  where  they  might  have  their 
liberty,  they  neither  could  nor  would  use  them,  because 
they  judged  the  imposition  of  these  things  to  be  sinful 
corruptions  in  tlie  worship  of  God."  There  was  no  com- 
posing such  a  strife ;  "  and  therefore,  finding  those  two 
brothers  to  be  of  high  spirits,  and  their  speeches  and  prac- 


Chap.  Vni.]  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY.  299 

tices  tending  to  mutiny  and  faction,  the  Governor  told 
them  that  New  England  was  no  place  for  such  as  they, 
and  therefore  he  sent  them  both  back  for  England  at  the 
return  of  the  ships  the  same  year."^     The  brothers  made 
their  complaint  to  the  Corporation  at  home,  who 
agreed  to  submit  to  referees  the  adjustment  of  the 
difference.     The  Company  wrote  letters  of  caution  to  En- 
dicott  and  the  ministers.     "It  is  possible,"  they 
said,  "  some  undigested  counsels  have  too  sudden- 
ly been  put  in  execution,  which  may  have  ill  construction 
with  the  state  here,  and  make  us  obnoxious  to  any  adver- 
sary."^    This  language,  with  more  of  the  same  tenor,  ap- 
pears to  have  been  prompted,  not  so  much  by  Avant  of 
sympathy  with  the  course  of  the  colonists,  as  by  an  ap- 
prehension of  the  unfavorable  effect  which  might  be  pro- 
duced by  it  in  high  quarters  in  England. 

This  proceeding  had  first  raised,  and  for  the  present  issue 
had  decided,  a  question  of  vast  magnitude.  The  right  of 
the  Governor  and  Company  of  Massachusetts  Bay 

•^         •'  •'      Anti-Episco- 

to  exclude  at   their    pleasure  dangerous   or  dis-  pa'  p^i'cy  at 
agreeable  persons  from  their  domain,  they  never 
regarded  as  questionable,  any  more  than  a  householder 
doubts  his  right  to  determine  who  shall  be  the  inmates 
of  his  home.^      No  civilized  man  had  a  right  to  come, 

1  For  -want  of  a  detailed  contempo-  Chap.  XLIII.),  whose  object  did  not 
raneous  account,  I  take  this  from  Mor-  distinctly  require  him  to  observe  it.  It 
ton's  Memorial  (148).  The  transac-  appears  to  be  equally  unknown  to  Mr. 
tion  was  one  of  special  interest  to  the  INIarsden  (History  of  the  Early  Puritans, 
Plymouth  people,  and  it  may  be  pre-  Chap.  XL).  And  Mr.  Anderson,  in 
sumed  that  they  were  correctly  in-  his  learned  and  not  uncandid  "  History 
formed  concerning  it.  It  is  not  un-  of  the  Church  of  England  in  the  Colo- 
likely  that  some,  who  had  come  to  the  nies"  (I.  3G2  et  seq.),  charges  the  treat- 
ordination,  remained  long  enough  to  ment  of  the  Brownes,  above  described, 
witness  the  consequent  proceedings.  to   the   Plymouth  people,   and   founds 

The  difference  between  the  Massa-  upon  this  mistake  some  strictures  on  an 

chnsetts  and  Plymouth  Colonies  has  not  American  writer, 
been  understood  by  English  students  of        ^  Mass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  408. 
our  histo]'y.     Not  only  is  it  overlooked         ^  "  We  have  thought  fit  to  give  you 

by  so  good  and  so  recent  a  writer  as  this  order,  that,  unless  he  [Ralph  Smith] 

Lord  Mahon  (History  of  England,  &c.,  will  be  conformable  to  our  government, 


300  HISTORY  OF  KEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

or  to  bo,  within  their  chartered  limits,  except  themselves 
and  such  others  as  they,  in  the  exercise  of  an  absolute 
discretion,  saw  fit  to  harbor.  The  policy  of  such  a  use 
of  their  right  as  was  now  made  by  their  officer  and  rep- 
resentative, it  is  easy  to  understand,  would,  in  exist- 
ing circumstances,  appear  to  him  equally  evident.  The 
English  hierarchy  was  immensely  powerful,  both  in  its 
own  resources  and  in  the  favor  of  an  absolute  monarch. 
Of  its  vigilance  and  cruelty  the  colonists  had  had  a  well- 
nigh  ruinous  experience.  If  it  could  keep  its  arms  about 
them,  they  thoroughly  knew  from  the  past  what  they  had 
to  expect  from  it  in  the  future.  They  had  fled  from  it 
to  the  wild  solitude  of  another  continent.  Should  they 
sufl"er  it  to  follow  them,  if  they  were  able  to  keep  it  off? 
A  conventicle  of  a  score  of  persons  using  the  Liturgy 
might  be  harmless ;  but  how  long  would  the  conventicle 
be  without  its  surpliced  priest,  and  when  he  had  come, 
how  far  in  the  distance  would  be  a  bishop,  armed  with 
the  powers  of  the  High-Commission  Court  1 

Religious  intolerance,  like  every  other  public  restraint, 
is  criminal  wherever  it  is  not  needful  for  the  public  safe- 
ty ;  it  is  simply  self-defence,  whenever  tolerance  would 
be  public  ruin.  It  may  be,  no  doubt,  that  the  danger, 
supposed  to  demand  it,  is  overrated  by  a  timid  imagina- 
tion. But  where  it  is  strictly  true  that  two  sets  of  people 
cannot  live  with  security  in  each  other's  presence,  it  is 
an  idle  casuistry  which  condemns  the  earlier  comer  and  the 
stronger  possessor  for  insisting  on  the  unshared  occupation 
of  his  place  of  residence.  He  may  not  only,  through 
cowardice  or  ill-temper,  too  easily  persuade  himself  that 
exclusiveness  is  essential  to  possession ;  he  may  further 
use  unnecessary   harshness   in  vindicating   his  exclusive 

you  siifTer  liim  not  to  remain  within  the  correction  ;  and  if  any  prove  incorrigi- 

limits  of  our  grant."   (Letter  of  tlie  Com-  ble,  and  will  not  be  reclaimed  by  gen- 

pany  to  Endicott,  April  17,  1C29.) —  tie  correction,  ship  such  persons  liome." 

"We  desire,  if  it  may  be,  that  errors  (Ibid.)  — Comp.  Winthrop,  I.  45,under 

may  be  reformed   wilh   lenity   or  mild  the  date  of  November  11,  1G30. 


Chap.  VIII.]  MASSACHUSETTS   BAY.  301 

claim  to  his  own.  But  it  is  preposterous  to  maintain 
that,  in  the  supposed  circumstances,  the  right  to  ex- 
clude is  not  his,  or  that  its  exercise  is  not  his  bounden 
duty.  And  the  right  becomes  of  yet  more  value,  and  the 
duty  more  imperative  and  inevitable,  when  the  good  in 
question  is  one  of  such  vast  worth  as  religious  freedom, 
to  be  protected  by  the  possessor,  not  only  for  himself,  but 
for  the  myriads,  living  and  to  be  born,  of  whom  he  as- 
sumes to  be  the  pioneer  and  the  champion. 

Meanwhile,  a  movement  of  the  utmost  importance,  prob- 
ably meditated  long  before,  was  hastened  by  external  pres- 
sure. The  state  of  public  affairs  in  England  in  the  spring 
and  summer  of  this  year  had  brought  numbers  to  the 
decision  which  had  been  heretofore  approached  with  sor- 
rowful reluctance,  and  several  persons  of  character  and 
condition  resolved  to  emigrate  at-  once  to  the  New  World. 
It  was  necessary  to  their  purpose  to  secure  self-  Transferor 
government,  as  far  as  it  could  be  exercised  by  loyewEng. 
British  subjects.  Possibly  events  might  permit  ''■""^* 
and  require  it  to  be  vindicated  even  beyond  that  line.  At 
any  rate,  to  be  ruled  in  America  by  a  commercial  corpo- 
ration in  England,  was  a  condition  in  no  sort  accordant 
with  their  aim.  At  a  General  Court  of  the  Com-  ^^^ 
pany,  Cradock,  the  Governor,  "  read  certain  propo-  ■'"'^  ^^• 
sitions  conceived  by  himself;  viz.  that  for  the  advancement 
of  the  plantation,  the  inducing  and  encouraging  persons 
of  worth  and  quality  to  transplant  themselves  and  families 
thither,  and  for  other  weighty  reasons  therein  contained, 
[it  is  expedient]  to  transfer  the  government  of  the  planta- 
tion to  those  that  shall  inhabit  there,  and  not  to  continue 
the  same  in  subordination  to  the  Company  here,  as  now 
it  is."  ^      The  Corporation  entertained  the  proposal,  and, 

1  Mass.   Col.   Rec,   I.    49. — "Mr.  gis  whom  he  had  been  talking  with  for 

Governor  read  certain  propositions  con-  two  or  three  years,  or  even  that  Burgis 

ceived   by   himself."      So   writes    Mr.  felt  called  upon  to  record  all  that  he 

Secretary  Burgis  in  the  Journal.     But  might  know  of  the  preparations  behind 

it  is  not  likely  that  Cradock  told  Bur-  the     scene.       Hubbard    says    (Chap. 

VOL.  I.  26 


302  msTor.Y  of  new  England.  [Book  i. 

in  view  of  "  the  many  great  and  considerable  consequences 

thereupon  depending,"  reserved  it  for  deliberation.     Two 

days  before  its  next  meeting,  twelve  gentlemen,^  assembled 

at  Cambridge,  pledged  themselves  to  each  other 

Agreement  at  o  j.  o 

cai.ibri<i2c.  to  cmbark  for  New  England  with  their  families 
for  a  permanent  residence,  provided  an  arrange- 
ment should  be  made  for  the  charter  and  the  administra- 
tion under  it  to  be  transferred  to  that  country.^  Legal 
advice  was  obtained  in  favor  of  the  authority  to  make  the 
transfer;  and  on  full  consideration  it  was  deter- 

Aug.  29. 

mined,  "  by  the  general  consent  of  the  Company, 
that  the  government  and  patent  should  be  settled  in  New 
England."  The  old  officers  resigned,  and  their  places 
were  filled  with  persons  of  whom  most  or  all  were  ex- 
pecting to  emigrate.^  John  Winthrop  was  chosen  Gov- 
ernor, with  John  Humphrey  for  Deputy-Governor,  and 
eighteen  others  for  Assistants.  Humphrey's  departure 
was  delayed,  and,  on  the  eve  of  embarkation,  his  place 
was  supplied  by  Thomas  Dudley. 

XVni.),  that,  -when  Endicott  was  de-  ilies  as  are  to  go  with  us,  to  embark  for 

Bpatched,  in   1G28,  "he  was  fully  in-  the  said  plantation  by  the  first  of"  March 

structcd  with  power  from  the  Company  next,  to  pass  the  seas,  under  God's  pro- 

to  order  all  affairs,  in  the  name  of  the  tection,  to  inhabit  and  continue  in  New 

patentees,   as  their   agent,  until  them-  England.   Provided  always,  that,  before 

selves  should  come  over,  which  was  at  the  last  of  September  next,  the  whole 

that  time  intended,  but  could  not  be  ac-  government,  together  with  the   patent 

complishcd  till  the  year  1630."  for  the  said  plantation,  be  first  legally 

1  Six  of  them  are  known  to  have  transferred."  (Agreement  at  Cam- 
been  already  members  of  the  Massachu-  bridge,  August  26,  1629,  in  Hutchin- 
setts  Company,  viz.  Saltonstall,  Vassall,  son's  Collections,  25,  26.) 

Xowell,  Pynchon,  Johnson,  and  Hum-  3  Cradock,  the  former  Governor,  was 

phrey,  the  name  of  the  last  of  whom  chosen  one  of  the  Assistants ;  but  I  do 

suggests  the  means  of  communication  not  know  that  he  ever  intended  to  come 

between  the  Dorchester  and  the  Cam-  oyer.    The  same  may  be  said  of  Samuel 

bridge   confederates.       (See  above,  p.  Aldersey,  Thomas  Goffe,  and  Nathaniel 

287,  note  3.)     Of  the  rest,  Winthrop  Wright,  the  last  of  whom  opposed  the 

and  Dudley  first  appeared  at  a  court  transfer  of  the  charter.    Cradock,  Goffe, 

of  the  Company,  October  15,  1629,  and  and  Wright  were  three  of  the  five  per- 

Thomas  Sliarpe,  October  20.  sons   in  England   intrusted   soon  after 

2  "  "NVc  will  so  really  endeavor  the  (December  1st)  with  the  care  of  the 
execution  of  this  work  as,  by  God's  as-  joint  stock,  of  which  Aldersey  was  also 
Bistaoce,  we  will  be  ready  in  our  per-  Treasurer ;  and  this  may  have  been  tlie 
eons,  and  with  such  of  our  several  fam-  reason  for  choosing  them  to  be  Assistants. 


Chap.  VIII.]  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY.  303 

Winthrop,  then  forty-two  years  old,  was  descended  from 
a  family  of  good  condition,  long  seated  at  Groton  in  Suf- 
folk, where   he  had   a  property  of  six  or  seven 

Li-''  New  officers 

hundred  pounds  a  year,  the  equivalent  of  at  least  ofthecom- 
two  thousand  pounds  at  the  present  day.  His 
father  was  a  lawyer  and  magistrate.  Commanding  un- 
common respect  and  confidence  from  an  early  age,^  he 
had  moved  in  the  circles  where  the  highest  matters  of 
English  policy  were  discussed,  by  men  who  had  been  asso- 
ciates of  Whitgift,  Bacon,  Essex,  and  Cecil.  Humphrey 
was  "  a  gentleman  of  special  parts,  of  learning  and  activ- 
ity, and  a  godly  man  "  ;  ^  in  the  home  of  his  father-in-law, 
Thomas,  third  Earl  of  Lincoln,  the  head,  in  that  day,  of 
the  now  ducal  house  of  Newcastle,  he  had  been  the  fa- 
miliar companion  of  the  patriotic  nobles.  Of  the  Assist- 
ants, Isaac  Johnson,  esteemed  the  richest  of  the  emigrants, 
was  another  son-in-law  of  Lord  Lincoln,  and  a  land- 
holder in  three  counties.  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  of  Hali- 
fax, in  Yorkshire,  was  rich  enough  to  be  a  bountiful 
contributor  to  the  Company's  operations.^  Thomas  Dud- 
ley, with  a  company  of  volunteers  which  he  had  raised, 
had  served,  thirty  years  before,  under  Henry  the  Fourth 
of  France ;  since  which  time  he  had  managed  the  estates 
of  the  Earl  of  Lincoln.  He  was  old  enough  to  have  lent 
a  shrill  voice  to  the  huzzas  at  the  defeat  of  the  Armada, 
and  his  military  service  had  indoctrinated  him  in  the  lore 
of  civil  and  religious  freedom.  Theo23hilus  Eaton,  an 
eminent  London  merchant,  was  used  to  courts,  and  had 
been  minister  of  Charles  the  First  in  Denmark.  Simon 
Bradstreet,  the  son  of  a  Non-conformist  minister  in  Lin- 
colnshire, and  grandson  of  "  a  Suffolk  gentleman  of  a  fine 


1  Cotton  Mather  says  (Book  n.  Chap.  ^  j  do  ^ot  know  how  the  name  of 
IV.  §  3),  that  Winthrop  was  "made,  at  Kichard  Saltonstall,  mentioned  by  Sir 
the  unusually  early  age  of  eighteen,  a  Simonds  D'Ewes  (Autobiography,  I. 
Justice  of  the  Peace."  But  the  state-  121,  140)  as  his  contemporary  at.Cam- 
ment  wants  better  evidence.  bridge  in   1G18  and  his  "very  entire 

2  Winthrop,  History  of  New  Eng-  friend,"  is  to  be  connected  with  this 
land,  I.  332.  gentleman. 


30-4  HISTORY   OF  KEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

estate,"  had  studied  at  Emanuel  College,  Cambridge. 
William  "\^assall  was  an  opulent  West-India  proprietor. 
"  The  principal  planters  of  Massachusetts,"  says  the  preju- 
diced Chalmers,  "  were  English  country  gentlemen  of  no 
inconsiderable  fortunes;  of  enlarged  understandings,  im- 
proved by  liberal  education ;  of  extensive  ambition,  con- 
cealed under  the  appearance  of  religious  humility."  ^ 

But  it  is  not  alone  from  what  we  know  of  the  position, 
character,  and  objects  of  those  few  members  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Company  who  were  proposinof  to  emi- 

Position  and  .  x        i  o 

character  of  grato  at  tlio  carly  period  now  under  our  notice, 
that  we  are  to  estimate  the  power  and  the  pur- 
poses of  that  important  corporation.  It  had  been  rapidly 
brought  into  the  form  which  it  now  bore,  by  the  political 
exigencies  of  the  age.  Its  members  had  no  less  in  hand 
than  a  wide  religious  and  political  reform,  —  whether  to 
be  carried  out  in  New  England,  or  in  Old  England,  or 
in  both,  it  was  for  circumstances,  as  they  should  unfold 
themselves,  to  determine.  The  leading  emigrants  to 
Massachusetts  were  of  that  brotherhood  of  men  who,  by 
force  of  social  consideration  as  well  as  of  intelligence  and 
resolute  patriotism,  moulded  the  public  opinion  and  ac- 
tion of  England  in  the  first  half  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury. While  the  larger  part  stayed  at  home  to  found,  as 
it  proved,  the  short-lived  English  republic,  and  to  intro- 
duce elements  into  the  English  Constitution  which  had 
to  wait  another  half-century  for  their  secure  reception, 
another  part  devoted  themselves  at  once  to  the  erection  of 
free  institutions  in  this  distant  wilderness. 

In  an  important  sense,  the  associates  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Company  were  builders  of  the  British,  as  well  as  of 
the  New-England  Commonwealth.  Some  ten  or  twelve 
of  them,  including  Cradock,  the  Governor,  served  in  the 
Long  Parliament.  Of  the  four  commoners  of  that  Parlia- 
ment distinguished  by  Lord  Clarendon  as  first  in  influence, 

1  Ilistory  of  tlic  Revolt  of  the  American  Colonies,  I.  58. 


Chap.  VIII.]  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY.  305 

Vane  had  been  Governor  of  the  Company,  and  Hampden, 
Pym,  and  Fiennes,  (all  patentees  of  Connecticut,)  if  not 
members,  were  constantly  consulted  upon  its  affairs.  The 
latter  statement  is  also  true  of  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  the 
Parliament's  Admiral,  and  of  those  excellent  persons, 
Lord  Say  and  Sele  and  Lord  Brooke,  both  of  whom  at 
one  time  proposed  to  emigrate.  The  Company's  meetings 
placed  Win  throp  and  his  colleagues  in  relations  with  numer- 
ous persons  destined  to  act  busy  parts  in  the  stirring  times 
that  were  approaching ;  —  with  Brereton  and  TIewson, 
afterwards  two  of  the  Parliamentary  Major-Generals  ;  with 
Philip  Nye,  who  helped  Sir  Henry  Vane  to  "cozen"  the 
Scottish  Presbyterian  Commissioners  in  the  phraseology  of 
the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant ;  ^  with  Samuel  Vassall, 
whose  name  shares  with  those  of  Hampden  and  Lord  Say 
and  Sele  the  renown  of  the  refusal  to  pay  ship-money,  and 
of  courting  the  suit  which  might  ruin  them  or  emancipate 
England ;  with  John  Venn,  who,  at  the  head  of  six  thou- 
sand citizens,  beset  the  House  of  Lords  during  the  trial 
of  Lord  Strafford,  and  whom,  with  three  other  Londoners, 
King  Charles,  after  the  battle  of  Edgehill,  excluded  from 
his  offer  of  pardon ;  with  Owen  Powe,  the  "  firebrand  of  the 
city";  with  Thomas  Andrews,  the  Lord  Mayor  who  pro- 
claimed the  abolition  of  royalty.  Sir  John  Young,  named 
second  in  the  original  grant  from  the  Council  for  New  Eng- 
land, as  well  as  in  the  charter  from  King  Charles,  sat  in 
Cromwell's  second  and  third  Parliaments,  Others  of  the 
Company,  as  Vane  and  Adams,  incurred  the  Protector's 
displeasure  by  too  uncomplying  principles.  Six  or  seven 
were  members  of  the  High  Court  of  Justice  for  the  king's 
trial,  on  which  occasion  they  gave  a  divided  vote.  Four 
were  members  of  the  Committee  of  Peligion,  the  most 
important  committee  of  Parliament;  and  one,  the  Coun- 
sellor John  White,  was  its  Chairman.^ 

1  Rushworth,  Historical  Collections,  2  J^  the  third  volume  of  Archaeo- 

V.  466,  467.  —  Clarendon,  History  of  logia   Americana    (xlvii.    et  seq.)    the 

the  Rebellion,  II.  232,  292.  learned    Secretary    of   the    Americau 
26* 


306  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

A  question  has  been  raised,  whether  the  Company  had 
a  rii^ht,  and  was  legally  competent,  to  convey  the  charter 
across  the  ocean,  and  execute  on  a  foreign  soil  the  pow- 
Rigbtoftho  ers  conferred  by  it.  Certain  it  is  that  no  such 
Company  to    pi'oceedinc:  is  forbidden  by  the  letter  of  the  in- 

convey  its         -l-  ~  ,  .  .     , 

charter  to  strumcnt ;  and  a  not  dismgenuous  casuistry  might 
inquire.  If  the  business  of  the  Company  may  be 
lawfully  transacted  in  a  western  harbor  of  Great  Britain, 
why  not  under  the  king's  flag  in  a  ship  at  sea,  or  on  the 
opposite  shore  1  It  cannot  be  maintained  that  such  a  dispo- 
sition of  a  colonial  charter  would  be  contrary  to  the  perma- 
nent policy  of  England  ;  for  other  colonial  charters,  earlier 
and  later,  were  granted,  —  Sir  William  Alexander's,  Wil- 
liam Penn's,  Lord  Baltimore's,  those  of  Rhode  Island  and 
Connecticut,  —  to  be  kept  and  executed  without  the  realm. 
As  to  the  purpose  of  the  grantor,  those  were  not  times 
for  such  men  as  the  Massachusetts  patentees  to  ask  Avhat 
the  king  wished  or  expected,  but  rather  how  much  of 
freedom  could  be  maintained  against  him  by  the  letter 
of  the  law  or  by  other  righteous  means ;  and  no  jninciple 
of  jurisprudence  is  better  settled,  than  that  a  grant  is  to 
be  interpreted  favorably  to  the  grantees,  inasmuch  as  the 
grantor,  being  able  to  protect  himself,  is  to  be  presumed 
to  have  done  so  to  the  extent  of  his  purpose.-^  The  emi- 
nent Puritan  counsellor,  John  White,  the  legal  adviser  of 
the  Company  in  all  stages  of  this  important  proceeding, 
instructed  them  that  they  could  legally  use  the  charter  in 
this  manner.  Very  probably  it  had  been  drawn  by  his 
own  hand,  in  the  form  in  which  it  passed  the  seals,  with 

Antiquarian  Society,  Mr.  Haven,  has  ^  This  is  the  general  doctrine  of  the 
presented  a  body  of  most  curious  infor-  common  law.  There  is  an  exception 
niation,  from  which  I  have  borrowed  for  royal  grants.  (Plowden,  243.)  But 
alx)ve,  in  respect  to  the  early  freemen  to  exclude  this  exception,  it  is  sometimes 
of  the  Company.  His  catalogue  exhib-  provided  that  grants  shall  be  construed 
its  110  names.  He  says  (Ibid.,  cxxi.)  "  mo?t  favorably  on  the  behalf "  of  the 
that  it  "  contiiins,  doubtless,  the  greater  grantees ;  and  this  provision  is  made  in 
proportion  of  memliers,  and  all  who  the  charter  of  the  IMassachusetts  Corn- 
were  at  all  prominent  or  influential."  Jiany.     (Hazard,  I.  255.) 


Chap.  VIII.] 


MASSACHUSETTS  BAY. 


307 


a  care  to  have  it  free  from  any  phraseology  which  might 
interfere  with  this  disposition  of  it.  Certainly  Winthrop 
and  his  coadjutors  may  be  pardoned  for  believing  that  it 
was  legally  subject  to  the  use  to  which  they  put  it,  since 
such  was  the  opinion  of  the  crown  lawyers  themselves, 
when,  in  the  second  following  generation,  the  question 
became  important.  In  the  very  heat  of  the  persecution 
which  at  length  broke  down  the  charter,  the  Chief  Jus- 
tices, Rainsford  and  North,  spoke  of  it  as  "  making  the 
Adventurers  a  corporation  upon  the  place,"  and  Sawyer, 
Attorney-General  in  the  next  reign,  expressed  the  same 
opinion ;  —  "  The  patent  ha\dng  created  the  grantees  and 
their  assigns  a  body  corporate,  they  might  transfer  their 
charter,  and  act  in  New  England."  ^ 


1  Chalmers,  Annals,  173.  —  In  treat- 
ing this  subject,  Grahame  (History  of 
the  Rise  and  Progress  of  the  United 
States,  I.  259)  says:  "  An  English  cor- 
poration, appointed  hi/  its  charter  to  re- 
side in  London,  resolved  itself,  by  its 
own  act,  into  an  American  corporation, 
and  transferred  its  residence  to  IVIassa- 
chusetts."  On  the  contrary,  the  ab- 
sence from  the  charter  of  any  limitation 
of  residence  appears  to  me  to  be  one 
of  the  important  points  in  the  case. 
The  Council  for  New  England,  char- 
tered to  hold  and  govern  territory  there, 
had  been  constituted  "  one  body  politic 
and  corporate,"  "  in  our  town  of  Ply- 
mouth, in  the  county  of  Devon."  (See 
Hazard,  I.  107.)  The  Massachusetts 
Company  had  not  been  "  appointed  by 
its  charter  to  reside  "  anywhere. 

And  if  this  omission  seems  significant, 
there  is  express  language  which  ap- 
pears not  less  so.  The  charter  em- 
powers the  Company  and  their  assigns, 
not  to  '■'■send,  carry,  and  trai^port,"  but, 
"  out  of  any  our  realms  and  dominions 
whatsoever,  to  take,  lead,  carry,  and 
transport,  for  and  into  their  voyages, 
and  for  and  towards  the  said  plantation 
in  New  England,  all  such  and  so  many 


of  our  loving  subjects,  or  any  other, 
strangers,  that  will  become  our  loving 
subjects  and  live  under  our  allegiance, 
as  shall  willingly  acco?n/)on^  them  in  the 
same  voyages  and  plantation."  (Ibid., 
Ill,  112.)  Edward  Johnson,  who  was 
one  of  the  emigrants  of  1630,  says 
(Wonder- Working  Providence  of  Sion's 
Saviour,  Chap.  VII.)  :  "It  was  thought 
meet  a  pattern  [patent]  should  be 
procured,  comprised  after  the  manner 
of  a  corporation  company  or  brother- 
hood, with  as  large  liberty  for  govern- 
ment of  this  association  as  could  be  got 
under  the  broad  seal  of  England,  which 
accordingly  was  done  by  advice  of  one 
Mr.  White,  an  honest  counsellor  at 
law,  as  also  further  by  the  honored 
Mr.  Richard  Bellingham."  Both  of 
these  gentlemen  were  deeply  interested 
in  the  movement.  The  former  was  the 
counsellor  who  has  been  mentioned  as 
having  been  consulted  upon  the  inter- 
pretation of  the  instrument;  the  latter 
was  afterwards  Governor  of  the  Com- 
pany and  the  Colony.  "Whether  Johnson 
had  been  correctly  informed  or  not,  I 
incline  strongly  to  the  opinion  that  the 
charter  was  drawn  by  some  one  who 
had  its  ultimate  transfer  to  America  in 


308  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  {Book  I. 

lie  who  well  weighs  the  f^xcts  which  have  been  pre- 
sented  in    connection  with  the  principal  emigration   to 
Massachusetts,  and  other  related  facts  which  will 
ep"rit'cd  and    ofFcr  tliemsclvcs  to  notice  as  we  proceed,  may  find 
conii.rohen-    j^jjjjggjf  conductcd  to  tho  conclusion,  that,  when 

61V0  design  '  ' 

oftiiemovo-  "Wintlirop  and  his  associates  prepared  to  convey 
across  the  water  a  charter  from  the  king,  which, 
they  hoped,  would  in  their  beginnings  afford  them  some 
protection  both  from  himself  and  through  him  from  the 
powers  of  Continental  Europe,  they  had  conceived  a  pro- 
ject no  less  important  than  that  of  laying,  on  this  side  of 
the  Atlantic,  the  foundations  of  a  nation  of  Puritan  Eng- 
lishmen, foundations  to  be  built  upon  as  future  circum- 
stances should  decide  or  allow.  It  would  not  perhaps  be 
pressing  the  point  too  far  to  say,  that,  in  view  of  the  thick 
clouds  that  were  gathering  over  their  home,  they  contem- 
plated the  possibility  that  the  time  was  near  at  hand  when 
all  that  was  best  of  what  they  left  behind  would  follow 
them  to  these  shores ;  when  a  renovated  England,  secure 
in  freedom  and  pure  in  religion,  would  rise  in  North 
America;  when  a  Transatlantic  English  empire  would 
fulfil,  in  its  beneficent  order,  the  dreams  of  English  patriots 
and  sages  of  earlier  times.^ 

If  such  were  the  aims  of  the  members  of  the  INIassachu- 
setts  Company,  it  follows  that  commercial  operations  were 
a  merely  incidental  object  of  their  association.  And,  in 
fact,  it  docs  not  appear  that,  as  a  corporation,  they  ever 

view,  and  that  the  project  of  that  trans-  the  discernment  of  Burke.     "  This  col- 

fer  was  no  afterthought,  as  it  has  been  ony   received   its    principal    assistance 

considered.      It  is  worthy  of  remark,  from   the   discontent  of  several   great 

that  Johnson's    omission,    as    well    as  men  of  the  Puritan  party,  who  were  its 

White's  (sec  above,  p.  290),  to  notice  protectors,  and  who  entertained  a  de- 

the  patent  obtained  from  the  Council  for  sign  of  settling  amongst  them  in  New 

New  England,  confinns  the   idea  that  England,  if  they  should  fail  in  the  meas- 

the  obtaining  of  tliat  patent  was  OTily  a  ures  they  were  pursuing  for  establishing 

suljordiiiatc  transition  step  towards  the  the  liberty  and  reforming  the  religion 

royal  charter  which  had  been  already  of  their  mother  country."     (Account  of 

in  contemplation.  the  European  Settlements  in  America, 

1  Few  things  worth  notice  escaped  II.  145.) 


Chap.  VIII.]  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY.  30^ 

held  for  distribution  any  property  except  their  land ;  or 
that  they  ever  intended  to  make  sales  of  their  land  in 
order  to  a  division  of  the  profits  among  the  individual 
freemen ;  or  that  a  freeman,  by  virtue  of  the  franchise, 
could  claim  a  parcel  of  land  even  for  his  own  occupation ;  ^ 
or  that  any  money  was  ever  paid  for  admission  into  the 
Company,  as  would  necessarily  have  been  done,  if  any 
pecuniary  benefit  was  attached  to  membership.  Sev- 
eral freemen  of  the  Company  —  among  others,  the  three 
who  were  first  named  in  the  charter,^  as  well  as  in  the 
patent  from  the  Council  for  New  England  —  appear  to 
have  never  so  much  as  attended  a  meeting.  They  were 
men  of  property  and  public  sj)irit,  who,  without  intend- 
ing themselves  to  leave  their  homes,  gave  their  influence 
and  their  money  to  encourage  such  as  were  disposed  to 
go  out  and  establish  religion  and  freedom  in  a  new  coun- 

try- 

The  Company  had  no  stocky  in  the  sense  in  which  that 
word  is  used  in  speaking  of  money  corporations.  What 
money  was  needed  to  procure  the  charter,  to  conduct  the 
business  under  it,  and  carry  out  the  scheme  of  coloniza- 
tion, was  obtained  neither  by  the  sale  of  negotiable  secu- 
rities, nor  by  assessment,  but  by  voluntary  contributions 
from  individuals  of  the  Company,  and  possibly  from  oth- 
ers, in  such  sums  as  suited  the  contributors  respectively. 

1  John  and  Samuel  Browne  were  free-  cote,  Ilutcliinson  says  (History,  I.  16)  : 
men  of  the  Company,  named  as  such  in  "  It  is  very  hkely  the  three  persons  first 
the  charter ;  but  when  they  were  "  pro-  named  in  this  grant  had  nothing  more 
posing  to  take  their  passage  in  the  Com-  in  view  by  the  purchase  than  a  settle- 
pany's  ships  for  New  England,"  where  ment  for  trade  with  the  natives,  or  for 
they  were  to  be  Counsellors,  it  was  fishing,  or  for  other  advantageous  pur- 
"  agreed  by  those  present  that  for  their  poses.  As  soon  as  a  colony  for  religion 
passage  and  diet  they  should  pay  five  was  projected,  we  hear  no  more  of 
pounds  each,  and  that  for  their  encour-  them."  The  fact  is,  we  never  hear  of 
agement  land  should  be  allotted  to  them  them  till  a  colony  for  religion  was  pro- 
there,  as  if  they  had  subscribed  fifty  jected,  and  then  we  hear  of  them  at  the 
pounds  in  the  general  stock."  (Mass.  head  of  the  movement  in  its  first  two 
Col.  Rec,  I.  34.)  important  public  stages. 

2  Of   lloswell.   Young,   and    South- 


310  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

These  contributions  made  up  what  is  called  in  the  rec- 
ords the  Joint  Stock,  designed  to  be  used  in  providing 
vessels  and  stores  for  the  transportation  of  settlers.  It  is 
true  that  these  contributors,  called  Adventurers,  had  more 
or  less  expectation  of  being  remunerated  for  their  outlay ; 
and  for  this  purpose  two  hundred  acres  of  land  within  the 
limits  of  the  patent  were  pledged  to  them  for  every  fifty 
pounds  subscribed,^  in  addition  to  a  proportional  share 
of  the  trade  which  the  government  of  the  Company  was 
expecting  to  carry  on.  But  a  share  of  the  profits  of  trade, 
as  of  the  land,  was  to  be  theirs,  not  because  they  were 
freemen,  but  because  they  were  contributors,  which  many 
of  the  freemen  were  not,  and  perhaps  others  besides  free- 
men were.^ 

When   the   transfer  of  the  charter  and  of  the  govern- 
ment to  America  had  been  resolved  upon,  it  was  agreed, 
that  at  the  end  of  seven  years  a  division  of  the 

Arrangement  '' 

of  financial  profits  of  a  proposcd  trade  in  fish,  furs,  and 
other  articles  should  be  made  among  the  Adven- 
turers agreeably  to  these  princij)les ;  and  the  management 
of  the  business  was  committed  to  a  board  consisting  of 
five  persons  who  expected  to  emigrate,  and  five  who  were 
to  remain  in  England.  But  this  part  of  the  engagement 
appears  to  have  been  lost  sight  of;  at  least  never  to  have 
been  executed.  It  is  likely  that  the  commercial  specula- 
tion was  soon  perceived  to  be  unpromising ;  and  the  outlay 
had  been  distributed  in  such  proportions,  that  the  loss  was 

1  Mass.  Col.  Roc,  I.  42,  43.  effectual  motive  for  contributions  was 

2  In  respect  both  to  object  and  to  a  public  one.  For  years  after  the  es- 
methods,  there  is  a  resemblance,  render-  tablishment  of  the  colony  in  ]\Iassachu- 
ing  them  mutually  illustrative,  between  setts,  it  continued  to  be  benefited  by 
the  Company  of  Massachusetts  Bay  and  the  bounty  of  its  English  patrons, 
the  Kansas  Aid  Society,  separated  from  (Winthrop,  II.  342.)  And  as  this 
each  other  in  time  by  two  centuries  must  have  been  principally  bestowed 
and  a  quarter.  The  latter  society,  as  by  the  friends  of  the  Assistants  and 
well  as  the  former,  had  a  conditional  other  leading  men,  it  must  have  oper- 
arrangement  for  reimbursing  the  con-  ated  as  a  means  of  sustaining  their  in- 
tributors  to  its  funds.      But  the  only  flucnce  in  the  internal  administration. 


Chap.  VIII.] 


MASSACHUSETTS  BAY. 


311 


not  burdensome  in  any  quarter.  The  richer  partners  sub- 
mitted to  it  silently,  from  public  spirit;  the  poorer,  as  a 
less  evil  than  that  of  a  further  expense  and  risk  of  time 
and  money.^ 

From  the  ship  Arbella,^  lying  in  the  port  of  Yarmouth, 
the  Governor  and  several  of  his  companions  took  leave  of 


1  Appropriations  of  land  in  the  plan- 
tation, on  the  principle  which  has  been 
explained,  were  made,  not  only  to  resi- 
dent contributors,  but  equally  to  non- 
residents, the  lands  to  be  occupied  by 
their  servants  ;  as  at  Maiden,  Ipswich, 
and  Marblehead  to  Cradock,  who  never 
came  over,  and  at  Watertown  to  Sir 
Richard  Saltonstall,  who  stayed  but  a 
year.  The  question  of  a  method  of 
reimbursement  to  the  contributors  was 
frequently  under  deliberation  dui'ing 
the  last  five  or  six  months  before  the 
departure  of  the  expedition.  (Mass. 
Col.  Rec,  I.  54  -  G7.)  A  reduced  val- 
uation of  claims  was  agreed  to,  and  the 
scheme,  as  finally  matured,  authorized 
the  ten  Trustees  to  accumulate  funds 
for  their  redemption,  at  the  expiration  of 
seven  years,  from  half  the  trade  in  furs, 
and  from  monopolies  of  the  manufacture 
of  salt,  of  the  transportation  of  passengers 
and  freight,  and  of  the  providing  of  mag- 
azines for  storage.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  Adventurers  so  privileged  were  to 
be  charged  with  half  the  expense  of 
churches  and  ministers,  and  of  fortifi- 
cations and  other  public  works.  These 
were  mutual  liabilities,  which  probably, 
after  a  little  experience,  it  was  thought 
to  be  for  the  interest  of  both  parties  to  re- 
lease. An  indication  of  a  tendency  to- 
wards this  conclusion  appears  in  a  A'ote 
of  a  court  of  the  Company,  held  Decem- 
ber 1st:  "That  if  those  that  intend  to 
inhabit  upon  the  plantation  shall,  before 
the  first  of  January  next,  take  upon 
them  all  the  said  engagements  and  oth- 
er charges  of  the  joint  stock,  then  the 
power  and  privileges  of  the  undertakers 
to  determine,  and  all  the  trade,  &c.,  to 


be  free."  (Ibid.,  55,  56,  59,  G2-66.) 
Samuel  Aldersey  was  chosen,  Decem- 
ber 1st,  to  be  Treasurer  of  the  Trustees. 
(Ibid.,  65,  69.)  But  we  hear  nothing 
of  him  after  the  embarkation.  In 
February,  1630,  a  few  weeks  before 
Winthrop  sailed,  another  appeal  to 
benevolence  was  made.  "  It  was  pro- 
pounded that  a  '  common  stock '  [so  to 
be  called  in  distinction  from  the  "joint 
stock "]  should  be  raised  from  such  as 
bear  good  aSection  to  the  plantation 
and  the  propagation  thereof,  and  the 
same  to  be  employed  only  in  defray- 
ment of  public  charges,  as  maintenance 
of  ministers,  transportation  of  poor  fam- 
ilies, building  of  churches  and  fortifica- 
tions, and  all  other  public  and  necessary 
occasions  of  the  plantation."  (Ibid., 
68.)  Of  this  fund  George  Ilarwood 
was  chosen  Treasurer.  The  contrib- 
utors to  it  were  to  look  for  their  re- 
imbursement to  the  fixed  allowance 
of  two  hundred  acres  of  land  for  every 
fifty  pounds,  and  were  to  have  no  in- 
terest with  the  previous  Adventurers 
in  the  profits  of  the  trade.  In  1634 
(Ibid.,  128)  and  1638  (Ibid.,  238) 
the  General  Court  called  on  Ilarwood 
for  his  account.  In  1635,  the  Colony 
paid  Cradock  fifty-five  pounds  (Ibid., 
165),  and  in  1647  (Ibid.,  II.  226)  his 
executrix  made  a  claim  for  six  hundred 
and  eighty  pounds. 

2  Formerly  Tlte  Eagle.  She  was  of 
three  hundred  and  fifty  tons'  burden, 
carried  twenty-eight  guns,  and  was  nav- 
igated by  fifty  men.  She  had  been 
bought  by  the  Company,  and  received 
her  new  name  in  compliment  to  Lady 
Arbella  (wife  of  Isaac)  Johnson. 


312  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

their  native  country  by  an  address,  which  they  entitled 
Departure  of  "  Thc  Ilumble  llcqucst  of  his  Majesty's  I.oyal 
winthrop's    Subjects,  the   Governor   and   the  Company  late 

1C30."  gone  for  New  England,  to  the  Hest  of  their  Breth- 
^''"'^'  ren  in  and  of  the  Church  of  England."  They 
Their  "Hum- asked  a  favorable  construction  of  their  enter- 
bio  Request."  pi-isc,  and  good  wishes  and  prayers  for  its  suc- 
cess. With  a  tenacious  affection  which  the  hour  of  parting 
made  more  tender,  they  said :  "  We  esteem  it  our  honor 
to  call  the  Church  of  ]^'n gland,  from  whence  we  rise, 
our  dear  mother,'  and  cannot  part  from  our  native  coun- 
try, where  she  specially  resideth,  without  much  sadness 

of  heart,  and  many  tears  in  our  eyes AVishing  our 

heads  and  hearts  may  be  as  fountains  of  tears  for  your 
everlasting  welfare,  when  we  shall  be  in  our  poor  cottages 
in  the  wilderness,  overshadowed  with  the  spirit  of  sup[)li- 
cation,  through  the  manifold  necessities  and  tribulations 
which  may  not  altogether  unexpectedly,  nor,  we  hope, 
unprofitably,  befall  us,  and  so  commending  you  to  the 
grace  of  God  in  Christ,  we  shall  ever  rest  your  assured 
friends  and  brethren."  The  address  is  said  to  have  been 
drawn  up  by  Mr.  White  of  Dorchester. 

The  incidents  of  the  voyage  are  minutely  related  in  a 

journal  begun  by  the  Governor  on  shipboard  off  the  Isle 

March  29.    of  Wight.     Prcachiug   and   catechizing,    fasting 

and  thanksgiving,  were  duly  observed.     A  record 

Their  voyage.       „,  .,  ,..  -,  .       ■,       • 

of  the  writers  meditations  on  the  great  design 
which  occupied  his  mind  while  he  passed  into  a  new 
world  and  a  new  order  of  human  affairs,  would  have  been 
a  document  of  the  profoundest  interest  for  posterity.  But 
the  diary  contains  nothing  of  that  description.     On  the 

1  Tliis   profession   of  attadimcnt  to  tlier  one  nor  tlio  otlior  was  tlio  Church, 

the  Chun-li  of  England  lias  been  con-  nor  W(;re  both.    The  question  u])on  their 

btrued  as  a  profession  of  atta(!hrnent  to  fonns  was  then  in  agitation  in  England, 

its  government  and  ritual.     But  what  as  well  as  in  Scotland.     As  to  Scotland, 

the  government  and  ritual  would  ulti-  it  was    ultimately    determincid    in   one 

mately  be,  was  then  uru-ertain,  and  nei-  way  ;  as  to  England,  in  another. 


Chap.  VIII.]  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY.  313 

voyage  Winthrop  composed  a  little  treatise,  which  he 
called  "A  Model  of  Christian  Charity."  It  hreathcs  the 
noblest  spirit  of  philanthropy.  The  reader's  mind  kindles 
as  it  enters  into  the  train  of  thought  in  which  the  author 
referred  to  "  the  work  we  have  in  hand.  It  is,"  he  said, 
"  by  a  mutual  consent,  through  a  special  overruling  Provi- 
dence, and  a  more  than  an  ordinary  approbation  of  the 
churches  of  Christ,  to  seek  out  a  place  of  cohabitation 
and  consortship  under  a  due  form  of  government  both  civil 
and  ecclesiastical.'"^  The  forms  and  institutions  under 
which  liberty,  civil  and  religious,  is  consolidated  and 
assured,  were  floating  vaguely  in  the  musings  of  that 
hour. 

The  Arbella  arrived  at  Salem  after  a  passage  of  nine 
weeks,  and  was  joined  in  a  few  days  by  three  vessels 
which  had  sailed  in  her  company.  The  Assist-  j„noi2. 
ants,  Ludlow  and  Rossiter,  with  a  party  from '^''^''' """"*'• 
the  west  country,  had  landed  at  Nantasket  a  fortnight 
before,  and  some  of  the  Leyden  people,  on  their  way  to 
Plymouth,  had  reached  Salem  a  little  earlier  yet.  Seven 
vessels  from  Southampton  made  their  voyage  three  or 
four  weeks  later.  Seventeen  in  the  whole  came  before 
winter,  bringing  about  a  thousand  passengers.^ 

It  is  desirable  to  understand  how  this  population,  des- 
tined to  be  the  germ  of  a  state,  was  constituted.  Of 
members  of  the  Massachusetts  Company,  it  cannot  be 
ascertained  that  so  many  as  twenty  had  come  over.     That 

1  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  XXVIT.  45.  riymouth   [Ludlow's,    tlic    IMaiy   and 

2  For  the  common  rcc-koning  oC  Jif-  John]  carried  about  one  hundred  and 
teen  huiulred  I  suppose  there  is  no  forty  pci-sons,  and  the  ship  which  goes 
earlier  or  better  authority  than  the  from  Bristowo  carrieth  about  eighty 
Charlestown  Records,  compiled  in  1664.  persons."  These  eighty  persons,  liow- 
Winthrop,  in  a  letter  to  his  wife  from  ever,  were  destined  for  riymouth,  leav- 
Cowes,  says  (Winthrop,  I.  368)  :  "We  ing  eight  hundred  and  forty  for  the 
are,  in  all  our  eleven  ships,  about  seven  number  of  emigrants  to  INIassaohusetts 
Itundred  persons,  passengers,  and  two  Bay;  and  the  four  other  vessels  of  the 
hundred  and  forty  cows,  and  about  si.\-  seventeen  did  not  so  much  convey  pas- 
ty horses.     The  ship  which  went  fi'om  scngers  as  stores  and  goods  for  trading 

VOL.  I.  27 


314  HISTORY  or  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

Company,  as  lias  been  explained,  was  one  formed  mainly 
for  the  furtherance,  not  of  any  private  interests,  but  of  a 
great  public  object.  As  a  corporation,  it  had  obtained  the 
ownership  of  a  large  American  territory,  on  which  it  de- 
signed to  place  a  colony  which  should  be  a  refuge  for 
civil  and  religious  freedom.  By  combined  counsels,  it  had 
arranged  the  method  of  ordering  a  settlement,  and  the 
liberality  of  its  members  had  provided  the  means  of  trans- 
porting those  who  should  compose  it.  This  done,  the 
greater  portion  were  content  to  remain,  and  await  the 
course  of  events  at  home,  while  a  few  of  their  number 
embarked  to  attend  to  the  providing  of  the  asylum  which 
very  soon  might  be  needed  by  them  all.  It  may  be  safely 
concluded  that  most  of  the  j)ersons  who  accompanied  the 
emigrant  members  of  the  Company  to  New  England,  sym- 
pathized with  them  in  their  object.  It  may  be  inferred 
from  the  common  expenditures  which  were  soon  incurred, 
that  considerable  sums  of  money  were  brought  over.  And 
almost  all  the  settlers  may  be  presumed  to  have  belonged 
to  one  or  another  of  the  four  following  classes :  —  1.  Those 
who  paid  for  their  passage,  and  who  were  accordingly 
entitled  on  their  arrival  to  a  grant  of  as  much  land  as  if 
they  had  subscribed  fifty  pounds  to  the  "  common  stock  " 
of  the  Company ; '  2.  Those  who,  for  their  exercise  of  some 
profession,  art,  or  trade,  were  to  receive  specified  remuner- 
ation from  the  Company  in  money  or  land  ;  ~  3.  Those  who 
paid  a  portion  of  their  expenses,  and,  after  making  up  the 


1  ]\Iass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  34,  35.     This  qnary,  tlie  Revcrenrl  INIr.  ITuntor,  sajs 

liberality,  however,  was  perhaps  pecu-  (Mass.  Ilist.  Coll.,  XXX.  171)  that  it 

liar  U)  the  ease  of  individuals,  whom  it  "consisted  A'cry  niueh  of  ])crsons  avIio, 

was  thought  desirable  to  tempt  to  make  though  not  of  the  very  first  rank,  were 

the   voyage.      The   allowance  of  land  yet  men  of  sul)stance  and  good  alliances, 

afterwards    set  against   passage-money will-making  families,  families 

was  only  fifty  acres  instead  of  two  hun-  high  in  the  subsidy-books,  while  some 

dred.     Compare  Anhrcol.  Amer.,  III.  of  them,  as  the  Winthrops,  were  among 

28. —  Of  the  emigration  which   "  fol-  the  principal  gentry  of  the  county." 

lowed    Governor    Winthrop    from    his  ^  Mass.  Col.  llec,  I.  29,  30,  37. 
own  county,"  that  learned  English  anti- 


Chap.  VIIL]  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY.  315 

rest  by  labor  at  the  rate  of  three  shillings  a  day,  were  to 
receive  fifty  acres  of  land ;  ^  4.  Indented  servants,  for 
whose  conveyance  their  masters  were  to  be  remunerated 
at  the  rate  of  fifty  acres  of  land  for  each.^  All  English- 
men were  eligible  to  the  franchise  of  the  Massachusetts 
Company ;  but,  until  elected  by  a  vote  of  the  existing  free- 
men, no  one  had  any  share  in  the  government  of  the  plan- 
tation, or  in  the  selection  of  its  governors. 

The    reception    of  the    new-comers    was    discouraging. 
More  than  a  quarter  part  of  their  predecessors  at  Salem 
had  died  during  the  previous  winter,  and  many  sickness 
of  the  survivors  were  ill  or  feeble.     The  faith-  ^"''^^^'"• 
ful  HigTijinson  was  wastin"^  with  a  hectic  fever, 

^^  '^    ^  .  Aug.  6. 

which  soon  proved  fatal.  There  was  a  scarcity 
of  all  sorts  of  provisions,  and  not  corn  enough  for  a  fort- 
night's supply  after  the  arrival  of  the  fleet.  "  The  re- 
mainder of  a  hundred  and  eighty  servants,"  who,  in  the 
two  preceding  years,  had  been  conveyed  over  at  a  heavy 
cost,  were  discharged  from  their  indentures,  to  escape  the 
expense  of  their  maintenance.  Sickness  soon  began  to 
spread,  and,  before  the  close  of  autumn,  had  proved  fatal 
to  two  hundred  of  this  year's  emigration.^  Death  aimed 
at  the  "  shining  mark  "  he  is  said  to  love.  Lady  Arbella 
Johnson,  coming  "  from  a  paradise  of  plenty  and  pleasure, 
which  she  enjoyed  in  the  family  of  a  noble  earldom,  into  a 
wilderness  of  wants,"  ^  survived  her  arrival  only  a  month  ; 
and  her  husband,  singularly  esteemed  and  beloved  by  the 
colonists,  died  of  j^rief  a  few  weeks  after.     "He 

.  ,  .  .  Sept.  30. 

was   a  holy  man   and  wise,   and  died  in    sweet 
peace."  ^ 

Giving  less  than  a  week  to  repose  and  investigations  at 
Salem,  AVinthrop  proceeded  with  a  x^^i'ty  in  quest  of  some 
more  attractive  place  of  settlement.     He  traced  the  Mys- 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  35.  4  Hubbard,  133. 

2  ArchtEol.  Amer.,  III.  28.  5  AVintlirop,  I.  3i. 

3  Dudley  to  the  Countess  of  Lincoln. 


31G  HISTOKY  or  NEW  ENGLAXD.  [Book  I. 


Examination 
of  the  couu- 

ti-y- 


tic  River  a  few  miles  up  from  its  mouth,  and,  after 
a  three  days'  exploration,  returned  to  Salem  to 
Juno  17.    keep  the  Sabbath.     AVhcn  ten  or  eleven  vessels 
had   arrived,  a  day   of  public  thanksgiving   was 
^"'^^"     observed  in  acknowledgment  of  the  Divine  good- 
ness M"hich  had  so  far  prospered  the  enterprise. 

After  a  sufficient  pause  for  deliberation  and  conference 

concerning  the  forms  of  organization  of  the  new  society, 

the  subject  of  an  ecclesiastical  settlement  was  the 

Ecclesiastical  «' 

setticnieiit.  ^irst  mattcr  to  receive  attention.  On  a  day  sol- 
emnized with  prayer  and  fasting,  the  E-everend 
Mr.  AVilson,  after  the  manner  of  proceeding  in  the  year 
before  at  Salem,  entered  into  a  church  covenant  with 
Winthrop,  Dudley,  and  Johnson.^  Two  days  after,  on 
Sunday,  they  associated  with  them  three  of  the  Assistants, 
Mr.  Nowell,Mr.  Sharpe,  and  Mr.  Bradstreet,  and  two  other 
persons,  Mr.  Gager  and  Mr.  Colburn.~  Others  were  pres- 
ently added ;  and  the  church,  so  constituted,  elected  Mr. 
AVilson  to  be  its  teacher,  and   ordained   him  to 

Aug.  27. 

that  charge  at  INIishawum.  At  the  same  time,  Mr. 
Nowell  was  chosen  to  be  ruling  elder,  and  Mr.  Gager  and 
Mr.  Aspinwall  to  be  deacons.  From  the  promptness  of 
these  measures,  it  is  natural  to  infer  that  they  had  been 
the  subject  of  consideration  and  concert  before  the  landing.^ 

1  For    this    Covenant,    see   Drake's  in  the  Bay  ;  but,  blessed  be  God,  more 

History  of  Boston,   93,    or   Emerson's  friends.    The  Governor  lialh  had  confcr- 

Ilistorical  Sketi  h  of  the  First  Church,  11.  encc  with  me,  both  in  pri\atc,  and  before 

-  Letter  of  Fuller  and  ^Vinslow  to  sundry  others.      0])poscrs  there  is  not 

Bradford,  in  Bradford,  277-279.  wanting,  and  Satan  is  busy  ;  but,  if  the 

3  Before  Phillips,  presently  minister  Lord  be  for  us,  who  can  be  against  us  ? 
of  AVaf  ertown,  had  been  on  shore  a  fort-  The  Governor  hath  told  me  he  hoped  we 
night,  he  told  Fuller  that,  "  if  they  would  will  not  be  wanting  in  helping  them,  so 
have  him  stand  minister  by  that  calhng  that  I  think  you  will  be  sent  for.  Here 
which  he  received  from  the  prelates  in  is  a  gentleman,  one  ^Ir.  Cottington,  a 
England.hewotdd  leave  them."  (Fuller's  Boston  man,  who  told  me  that  Sir. 
LetU-r  to  Bradf(jrd,  June  28,  in  ISIass.  Cotton's  charge  at  Hampton  was  that 
Hist.  Coll.,  HI.  74.)  Yet  Phillips  had  they  should  take  advice  of  them  at  Ply- 
been  one  of  the  signers  of  the  "  Humble  mouth,  and  sliould  do  nothing  to  offend 
Request."  (See  above,  p.  . 31 2.)  Fuller  them.  Captain  Kndicott,  my  dear  friend 
wrote  :  "  We  have  some  privy  enemies  and  a  friend  to  us  all,  is  a  second  Bar- 


Chap.  VIIL]  MASSACHUSETTS   BAY.  317 

But  there  was  some  lingering  scruple  respecting  the  inno- 
vation on  accustomed  forms ;  and  either  for  the  general 
satisfaction,  or  to  appease  some  doubters,  "  the  imposition 
of  hands  "  was  accompanied  with  "  this  protestation  by  all, 
that  it  was  only  as  a  sign  of  election  and  confirmation."  ^ 

In  the  choice  of  a  capital  town,  attention  was  turned  to 
Mishawum,  already  called  Charlestown.  Here,  ten  weeks 
after  the  landing,  the  first  Court  of  Assistants 

^  Courts  of 

on  this  side  of  the  water  was  convened.  The  Assistants. 
Assistants  present  were  Saltonstall,  Ludlow,  Kos- 
siter,  Nowell,  Sharpe,  Pynchon,  and  Bradstreet.  Three 
others  were  in  the  country  ;  Johnson,  Endicott,  and  Cod- 
dington.  The  question  first  considered  was  that  of  pro- 
vision for  the  ministers.  It  was  "  ordered  that  houses  be 
built  for  them  with  convenient  speed  at  the  public  charge. 
Sir  Richard  Saltonstall  undertook  to  see  it  done  at  his 
plantation  [Watertown]  for  Mr.  Phillips,  and  the  Gov- 
ernor at  the  other  plantation  for  Mr.  Wilson."  Allow- 
ances of  thirty  pounds  a  year  to  each  of  these  gentlemen 
were  to  be  made  at  the  common  charge  of  the  settle- 
ments, "  those  of  Mattapan  and  Salem  exempted,"  as  being 
already  provided  with  a  ministry.^      Provision  was  also 

row."  All  this  evidently  expresses  Ful-  may  be  considered  decisive.  Besides, 
ler's  solicitude  respecting  the  pending  this  was  only  a  Court  of  Assistants,  and 
question  of  the  ecclesiastical  constitu-  the  Assistants  had  no  power  of  such  elec- 
tion of  the  new  colony.  Fuller,  as  has  tion  by  the  charter,  nor,  as  yet,  by  any 
been  related,  had  secured  Endicott's  order  of  the  Company,  though  an  order 
sympathy  and  concuri'ence  in  the  pre-  to  that  effect  was  made  soon  after.  That 
ceding  year  learned  antiquary,  Mr.  Drake,  (History 

1  Winthrop,  I.  31  -33.  of  Boston,  94,)  argues  very  ingeniously 

2  Johnson  (Wonder-Working  Prov-  in  defence  of  Johnson's  statement,  but 
idence.  Chap.  XVII.)  says  that  the  I  cannot  come  to  his  conclusion. 
Court  was  holden  on  board  of  the  Ar-  ^  Eosslter  and  Ludlow,  who,  "  with 
bella,  and  that  it  chose  Winthrop  and  many  godly  families  and  people  from 
Dudley  to  be  respectively  Governor  Devonshire,  Dorsetshire,  and  Somerset- 
and  Deputy-Governor  The  former  shire,"  had  set  sail  from  Plymouth  two 
statement  may  be  correct,  but  scarcely  or  three  weeks  before  Winthrop,  in  a 
the  latter.  Winthrop  and  Dudley  had  vessel  of  four  hundred  tons,  were  ac- 
been  ah-eady  chosen  in  England  for  the  companied  by  two  ministers,  Mr.  War- 
year.  The  public  records  say  nothing  of  ham  and  Mr.  Maverick.  The  proceed- 
an  election,  which  in  such  a    matter  ings  in  respect  to  these  gentlemen  are 

27* 


318  HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAOTD.  [Book  I. 

made  for  Mr.  Gager  as  engineer  and  Mr.  Penn  as  bea- 
dle. It  was  ordained  "  that  carpenters,  joiners,  brick- 
layers, sawers,  and  thatchers  should  not  take  above  two 
shillings  a  day,  nor  any  man  should  give  more,  under  pain 
of  ten  shillings  to  taker  and  giver  "  ;  and  "  sawers "  were 
restricted  as  to  the  price  they  might  take  for  boards.  The 
use  or  removal  of  boats  or  canoes,  without  the  owner's 
leave,  was  prohibited,  under  penalty  of  fine  and  imprison- 
ment. Saltonstall,  Johnson,  Endicott,  and  Ludlow  were 
appointed  to  be  Justices  of  the  Peace,  besides  the  Gov- 
ernor and  Deputy-Governor,  who  were  always  to  have 
that  trust  by  virtue  of  their  higher  office.  And  "  it  was 
ordered  that  Morton,  of  Mount  AVoolison,  should  pres- 
ently be  sent  for  by  process."^  Morton  had  lately 
been  brought  back  to  Plymouth  by  Allerton  (who 
incurred  much  censure  on  that  account),^  and,  repairing 
to  Mount  Wollaston,  had  resumed  his  old  courses. 

A  recital  of  the  action  of  the  Board  of  Assistants  at 
their  first  meetings  on  this  continent  will  explain  the 
early  exigencies  of  their  administratioa,  and  the  view  en- 
tertained by  them  of  their  duties  and  powers.  At  a  sec- 
ond Court,  held  at  Charlestown,  the  following  business 

remarkable,  exhibiting  no  less  than  the  day ;  and  in  the  latter  part  of  the  day, 
adoption  by  ]\Iassachusetts  emigrants,  as  the  people  did  solemnly  make  choice 
before  leaving  England,  of  the  congre-  of  and  call  those  godly  ministers  to  be 
gational  model  of  church  government,  their  ofHccrs,  so  also  the  Reverend  Mr. 
and  that  too  with  the  countenance  of  AVarham,  a  famous  preacher  at  Exeter, 
!Mr.  AMiite  of  Dorchester,  who  for  this  and  Mr.  ISIaverick  did  express  the 
occasion  seems  to  have  set  light  by  his  same."  Clap,  who  records  this  trans- 
relation  to  the  Established  Church,  action  (iNIemoirs  of  Captain  Roger  Clap, 
"These  godly  people  resolved  to  live  21),  appears  to  represent  himself  as  an 
together;  and  therefore,  as  they  had  eyewitness  to  it. — Prince  (Chron.  Hist., 
made  choice  of  those  two  reverend  ser-  200),  on  the  authority  of  a  manuscript 
vants  of  God,  Mr.  John  "Warham  and  letter,  says  that  Warham  and  IMaverick 
Mr.  John  ^laverick  to  be  their  minis-  were  "at  the  same  time  ordained."  — 
ters,  so  they  kept  a  solemn  day  of  fasting  Rossitcr's  compan}',  having  landed  at 
in  the  new  hospital  at  I'lymouth  in  Eng-  Nantasket  (IMay  30),  first  proceeded  to 
land,  speniliiig  it  in  preaching  and  pray-  the  site  of  Watertown,  and  then  to  that 
ing;  where  tliat  worthy  man  of  God,  the  of  Dorchester  (iNIattapan),  where  they 
Reverend  ^Ir.  John  White  of  Dorches-  concluded  to  fix  themselves. 
t<3r,  in  Dorset,  was  present,  and  preached  1  Mass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  73,  74. 
tlie  word  of  God  in  the  fore  part  of  the         2  Bradford,  252,  253. 


Chap.  VIII.]  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY.  319 

was  transacted.     It  was  agreed  "  that  every  third  Tuesday 
there   should   be  a   Court   of  Assistants   held   at 

Sept.  7. 

the  Governor's  house."  It  was  "  ordered  that 
Thomas  Morton  of  Mount  Wollaston  should  presently  be 
set  into  the  bilboes,  and  after  sent  prisoner  to  England  by 
the  ship  called  the  Gift,  now  returning  thither ;  that  all 
his  goods  should  be  seized  upon  to  defray  the  charge  of  his 
transportation,  payment  of  his  debts,  and  to  give  satisfac- 
tion to  the  Indians  for  a  canoe  he  unjustly  took  away  from 
them ;  and  that  his  house  should  be  burned  down  to  the 
ground,  in  sight  of  the  Indians,  for  their  satisfaction  for 
many  wrongs  he  hath  done  them  from  time  to  time."  Mr. 
Clarke  was  directed  to  pay  to  John  Baker  the  sum  of 
thirty-eight  shillings,  for  cheating  him  in  a  sale  of  cloth. 
A  stipend  was  granted  to  Mr.  Patrick  and  Mr.  Underbill, 
as  military  instructors  and  officers.  The  names  of  Boston, 
Dorchester,  and  Watertown  were  assigned  to  the  places 
which  still  bear  them.  And  it  was  ordered  that  no  plan- 
tation should  be  made  within  the  limits  of  the  patent,  with- 
out permission  from  a  majority  of  the  board  of  Governor 
and  Assistants,  and  that  "  a  warrant  should  presently  be 
sent  to  Agawam  [Ipswich],  to  command  those  that  are 
planted  there  forthwith  to  come  away."  -^ 

At  a  third  Court,  also  held  at  Charlestown,  regulations 

1  The  friends  of  tlie  colonists  at  home  tion.  The  Board,  being  always  ready- 
were  meanwhile  exerting  themselves  to  give  their  best  assistance  to  works  of 
successfully  in  their  behalf.  1630,  Sep-  this  kind,  which  aim  at  the  propagation 
tember  29,  the  Lords  of  the  Privy  of  the  Christian  religion,  the  honor  of  his 
Council  received  a  petition  from  the  Majesty,  and  increase  of  trade,  thought 
Governor  and  Company  of  the  Massa-  fit,  and  ordered,  that  his  INIajesty's  Attor- 
chusetts  Bay,  praying,  —  1.  leave  to  ney-General  shall  be  prajed  and  re- 
transport  provisions  (which  was  grant-  quired  to  call  unto  him  the  Governor  or 
ed)  ;  2.  a  stopping  of  the  disorderly  such  Assistants  of  the  said  Company  as 
trade  of  fishermen  and  other  interlopers,  are  here  in  England,  and,  upon  confer- 
by  enforcement  of  the  proclamation  of  ence  with  them,  to  insert  them  into  a 
the  twentieth  year  of  James,  November  draft  of  a  proclamation,  and  prepare  a 
6,  "  with  some  other  needful  and  benef-  bill  fit  for  his  ]\Iajesty's  signature." 
icent  additions,  which  might  tend  to  the  (Journal  of  the  Privy  Council.)  Secre- 
safety  and  prosperity  of  the  said  planta-  tary  Coke  was  present  at  the  meetinn-. 


320  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

were  enacted  against  allowing  the  Indians  the  use  of  fire- 
arms, and  against  parting  with  corn  to  them, 
or  sending  it  out  of  the  jurisdiction,  without 
a  license.  Constables  were  appointed  for  Salem  and 
Dorchester.  The  wages  of  common  laborers  were  fixed 
at  sixpence  a  day,  and  those  of  mechanics  who  were  em- 
ployed in  building  at  sixteen  pence,  in  addition  to  "  meat 
and  drink."  Order  was  given  for  the  seizure  of  "  Eichard 
Clough's  strong  water,  for  his  selling  great  quantity  there- 
of to  several  men's  servants,  which  was  the  occasion  of 
much  disorder,  drunkenness,  and  misdemeanor."  The 
execution  of  a  contract  between  certain  parties  for  the 
keeping  of  cattle,  was  defined  and  enforced.  Sir  Hichard 
Saltonstall  was  fined  four  bushels  of  malt  for  absenting 
himself  from  the  meeting.  Thomas  Gray,  for  "divers 
things  objected  against  him,"  was  ordered  "  to  remove 
himself  out  of  the  limits  of  this  patent  before  the  end  of 
March  next."  "  For  the  felony  committed  by  him,  where- 
of he  was  convicted  by  his  own  confession,"  John  Goul- 
buni,  as  principal,  and  three  other  persons,  as  accessaries, 
were  sentenced  "  to  be  whipped,  and  afterwards  set  in  the 
stocks."  Servants,  "  either  man  or  maid,"  were  forbidden 
to  "  give,  sell,  or  truck  any  commodity  whatsoever,  with- 
out license  from  their  master,  during  the  time  of  their 
service."  An  allowance  was  made  to  Captains  Underbill 
and  Patrick  for  quarters  and  rations ;  and,  for  their  main- 
tenance, a  rate  of  fifty  pounds  was  levied,  of  which  sum 
Boston  and  AVatertown  were  assessed  eleven  pounds  each, 
Charlestown  and  Dorchester  seven  pounds  each,  Roxbury 
five  pounds,  and  Salem  and  Mystic  each  only  three 
pounds,  —  a  sort  of  indication  of  the  estimated  wealth  of 
those  settlements  respectively. 

The  public  business  proceeded  at  the  next  two  Courts 

after  the  same  manner.     A  restriction,  which  it  seems  had 

existed   under  Endicott's   administration,  on   the 

Nov.  9.  .  •• 

price  of  beaver,  was  removed.     A  bounty  was  of- 


Chap.  VIIL]  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY.  321 ' 

fered  for  the  killing  of  wolves,  to  be  paid  by  the  owners 
of  domestic  animals  in  sums  proportioned  to  the  amount  of 
their  stock.  Encouragement  was  given,  by  a  legal  rate  of 
toll,  to  the  setting  up  of  a  ferry  between  Charlestown  and 
Boston.  A  servant  of  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall  was  sentenced 
to  "be  whipped  for  his  misdemeanor  towards  his  master"  ; 
and  bonds  were  taken  for  good  behavior  in  a  case  of  "  strong 
suspicion  of  incontinency."     Sir  Richard  Salton- 

*'  .        .  Nov.  30. 

stall  was  fined  five  pounds  for  whipping  two  per- 
sons without  the  presence  of  another  Assistant.  A  man 
was  ordered  to  be  whipped  for  fowling  on  the  Sabbath- 
day  ;  another  for  stealing  a  loaf  of  bread ;  and  another  for 
breaking  an  engagement  to  pilot  a  vessel,  with  the  privi- 
lege, however,  of  buying  off  the  punishment  with  forty 
shillings.  The  employers  of  one  Knapp,  who  was  indebted 
to  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  and  of  his  son,  were  directed  to 
apply  half  of  their  wages  to  the  discharge  of  the  debt.  An 
assessment  of  sixty  pounds  was  laid  on  six  settlements  for 
the  maintenance  of  Mr.  Wilson  and  Mr.  Phillips,  of  which 
sum  Boston  and  Watertown  were  to  pay  twenty  pounds 
each,  and  Charlestown  half  as  much  ;  and  Roxbury,  Mys- 
tic, and  Winnisimmet  were  charged  with  six  pounds, 
three  pounds,  and  one  pound  respectively.^ 

An  epidemic  sickness  at  Charlestown  was  ascribed  to 
the  want  of  good  water.-     An  ample  supply  of  it  being 
found  in  Boston,  a  portion  of  the  people  removed  General 
to  that  peninsula ;  ^  and  there,  for  the  first  time  BoJon." 
after  their  arrival  on  this  continent,  was  held  one    ^'''*  ^^' 
of  those   quarterly  General  Courts  of  the  Company  of 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  75  -  78,  81,  82.  these  people  -were  in.     And  that  which 

2  "  Almost  in  every  family  lamenta-  added  to  their  present  distress  was  the 
tion,  mourning,  and  woe  was  heard,  and  want  of  fresh  water."  (Johnson,  Won- 
no  fresh  food  to  be  had  to  cherish  them,  der- Working  Providence,  Chap.  XVII.) 
It  would  assuredly  have  moved  the  3  Blaxton  is  said  to  have  invited 
most  locked-up  affections  to  tears,  no  them  across  the  channel.  He  had  prob- 
doubt,  had  they  passed  from  one  hut  to  ably  come  to  Boston  Bay  with  Robert 
another,  and  beheld  the  piteous  case  Gorges  in  1623.     (See  above,  p.  206.) 


322  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

Massachusetts  Bay,  -which  were  proscribed  in  a  provision 
of  the  charter. 

A  hundred  and  eighteen  persons,  inchiding  several  of 
the  earUer  planters,  gave  notice  at  this  Court  of  their  de- 
sire to  be  admitted  to  the  freedom  of  the  Company.  Per- 
haps it  was  in  anticipation  of  the  doubtful  result  of  such 
Adoption  of  an  irruption  of  strangers,  that  a  rule  was  adopt- 
"leTtiotand''  ^d,  materially  differing  from  that  of  the  charter, 
legislation.  £qj.  ^jjg  cholcc  of  thc  liighost  magistrates,  the 
enacting  of  laws,  and  the  appointment  of  ministerial 
officers.  The  Company  delegated  important  attributes  of 
their  power  to  the  Assistants.  It  was  ordered  that  As- 
sistants only,  "  when  there  are  to  be  chosen,"  should  in 
future  be  chosen  by  the  Company  at  large ;  and  that  the 
Assistants,  with  a  Governor  and  Deputy-Governor,  to  be 
elected  by  them  from  their  own  number,  "  should  have 
the  power  of  making  laws  and  choosing  officers  to  exe- 
cute the  same."  The  arrangement  soon  proved  to  be  out 
of  harmony  with  the  spirit  of  the  time  and  the  place.  It  is 
not  difficult  to  understand  why  it  was  speedily  abandoned ; 
but  neither  is  its  adoption  under  the  circumstances  matter 
of  surprise.  By  the  time  the  emigrants  had  been  four 
months  on  shore,  the  vastness  of  their  enterprise  must 
have  begun  to  reveal  to  them  its  difficulties,  and  to  be 
contemplated  with  profound  solicitude.  It  had  become 
evident  that  occasions  were  to  arise,  such  as  would  call  for 
great  experience,  capacity,  and  firmness  in  the  govern- 
ment. It  was  not  unnatural  that  the  less  qualified  of  the 
Company  should  shrink  from  such  a  trust,  and  should  be 
inclined  to  repose  it  in  such  of  their  number  as  were  es- 
teemed the  most  competent,  as  well  as  that  they  should  de- 
sire to  obtain  a  degree  of  security  against  persons  about  to 
become  their  associates.  But  while  considerations  like 
these  may  have  conciliated  to  the  measure  the  approba- 
tion of  disinterested  men,  whether  possessing  or  not  pos- 
sessing thc  franchise,  a  further  explanation  of  what  took 


Chap.  VIII.] 


MASSACHUSETTS  BAY. 


323 


place  may  be  thought  to  present  itself  in  the  fact,  that,  in 
this  general  meeting  which  reposed  such  trust  in  the 
Magistrates,  the  eight  Magistrates  who  were  present  per- 
haps constituted  the  majority  of  legal  voters,^  though  it 
seeans  that  on  so  important  an  occasion  they  thought  it 
expedient  to  seek  the  concurrence  of  others  who  mio-ht 
presently  be  admitted  to  the  Company,  and  the  measure 
"  was  fully  assented  unto  by  the  general  vote  of  the  peo- 
ple, and  erection  of  hands."  ^ 

The  plantations  through  which  the  Massachusetts  set- 
tlers were  scattered  were  now  eight  in  number ;  namely, 
Salem,  Charlestown,  Dorchester,  Boston,  Water- 

-p.,  -  -n/r-r-*  Settlements 

town,  Koxbury  (where  Mr.  Pynchon,  one  of  the  about  Boston 
Assistants,  had  sat  down  with  a  party).  Mystic  ^^^' 
(assigned  to  Mr.  Cradock,  and  occupied  for  him  by  some 


^  Johnson  and  Higginson  were  now 
dead,  and  Vassall,  Bright,  Revell,  and 
Thomas  Sharpe  had  returned  to  Eng- 
land. So  that,  besides  the  Governor, 
Deputy-Governor,  and  Assistants,  I 
think  it  cannot  be  positively  shown  that, 
in  October,  1 G30,  there  was  in  Massachu- 
setts a  single  freeman  of  the  Company, 
except  John  Glover  of  Dorchester,  who, 
from  his  having  been  a  Deputy  in  the 
General  Court,  without  being  made  a 
freeman  on  this  side  of  the  water,  and 
from  his  subscription  to  the  stock  in 
May,  1628  (Felt,  Annals  of  Salem,  509), 
may  be  concluded  to  have  possessed  the 
franchise  before  he  emigrated.  Samuel 
Sharpe  of  Salem,  Abraham  Palmer  of 
Charlestown,  William  Colburn  of  Bos- 
ton, and  the  ministers,  Skelton  and 
Phillips,  had  been  variously  connected 
with  the  Company  in  England ;  but  it 
seems  that  they  had  not  actually  ob- 
tained its  franchise  there,  since  we  find 
them  to  have  applied  for  it  in  IMassachu- 
setts  in  October,  1G30,  (Mass.  Col.  Pec, 
I.  79,  80,)  and  to  have  received  it  accord- 
ingly,—  Sharpe  in  July,  1632,  the  rest 


in  May,  1631.  (Ibid.,  366, 367.)  When 
Sharpe  was  chosen  an  Assistant  in  Eng- 
land, in  October,  1629,  (Ibid.,  60,)  it 
must  have  been  only  in  anticipation  of 
his  becoming  a  freeman.  And  we  read 
that,  in  February,  1630,  "Mr.  Roger 
Ludlow  was  chosen  and  sworn  an  As- 
sistant in  the  room  of  ]\Ir.  Samuel 
Sharpe,  who,  by  reason  of  his  absence, 
had  not  taken  the  oath."  (Ibid.,  69.) 
He,  as  well  as  Palmer  and  Skelton,  came 
over  -svith  Higginson  almost  immediately 
after  the  charter  was  in  the  Company's 
hands,  and  probably  before  arrange- 
ments were  made  for  the  admission  of 
new  associates.  Phillips  first  appears 
in  the  records  of  the  Company  when  the 
Arbclla  was  off  the  Isle  of  Wight,  ready 
to  sail.  Colburn  signed  the  "  Agree- 
ment at  Cambridge,"  but  his  name  does 
not  otherwise  occur  in  connection  with 
the  Company's  doings  in  England,  un- 
less (which  is  altogether  uncertain)  he 
was  the  "  Mr.  Colbrand  "  who  was  pres- 
ent at  two  meetings  in  August,  1629. 
(Ibid.,  50.) 
2  Ibid.,  79. 


32-1  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

servants),  and  Saugus  (Lynn),  to  which  place  some 
emigrants  of  the  last  year  had  probably  strayed  from 
Salem. ^  Before  winter,  the  Governor  and  several  of  the 
principal  persons  had  erected  and  occupied  some  rude 
temporary  habitations  on  the  peninsula  of  Boston.  A 
fortification  was  projected,  and  the  narrow  isthmus  which 
connects  Boston  with  Roxbury  was  fixed  on  for 

Dec.  C.         .  .         "^ 

its  site ;   but  before  anything  Avas  done  further 

than  to  collect  some  materials,  the  spot  which  is  now  Old 

Cambridge  was  preferred,  and  the  Governor  and 

Dec.  28.  ^  '■ 

all  but  two  of  the  Assistants  engaged  together 
to  build  houses  there  in  the  following  year.^ 

AVith  the  wretched  shelter  which  was  all  that  most  of 
the  recent  emigrants  had  been  able  to  provide,  the  winter, 
Sickness  and  fi'om  thc  last  weok  in  December,  when  the  cold 
famine.  ggj.  ^^^^  ^q  ^j^g  middle  of  February,  proved  griev- 
ously severe.  Many  died  of  the  scurvy,  w^hich  disease, 
Winthrop  thought,  especially  aftiected  "  such  as  fell  into 
discontent,  and  lingered  after  their  former  conditions  in 
England."  ^  Suffering  from  want  of  food  was  added  to  the 
distresses  of  the  time.  Shell-fish  had  to  serve  for  meat ; 
ground-nuts  and  acorns  for  bread.  It  was  a  welcome  re- 
lief when  a  vessel  sent  to  the  southern  side  of 

November. 

Cape  Cod   procured  a  hundred  bushels  of  com. 

The  scarcity  of  bread-stuff's  in  England  w'as  such,  that  for 

every  bushel  of  imported  flour,  when  it  was  to  be  had, 

the  colonists  had  paid  fourteen  shillings  sterling.     A  fast 

1631.      had  been  appointed  to  be  kept  throughout  the 

Feb.  5.     settlements,  to  implore  Divine  succor.     Thc  day 

1  Lewis,  Ilistor}'  of  Lynn,  pp.  GO,  Gl.  understood  to  be  what  is  now  Old  Cam- 

2  Dudley,  Letter  to  the  Countess  of  bridge  or  Watertown  ;  but  this  could 
Lincoln.  They  had,  he  says,  before  not  be,  for  Dudley  says  that  the  reason 
thought  of  a  place  "  three  leagues  up  of  their  sitting  down  at  Watertown  and 
Charles  River."  This  would  correspond  other  near  places  was  that  they  were 
to  wliat  is  now  Waltham  or  Weston,  too  much  disabled  by  sickness  to  carry 
and  I  think  it  very  likely  to  have  been  their  "ordnance  and  baggage  so  far"  as 
near  thc  mouth  of  Stony  Brook,  which  "  three  leagues  up  Charles  River." 
divides  those  two  towns.     It  has  been  3  Winthrop,  L  45. 


Chap.  Vm.l 


MASSACHUSETTS  BAY. 


325 


before  that  which  was  to  be  thus  solemnized,    a   vessel 
arrived  from  England  with  supplies,  and  a  pub- 

^  .  ,  Feb.  22. 

lie  thanksgiving  was  substituted. 

For  three  months,  there  is  no  record  of  Courts  of  As- 
sistants after  those  whose  proceedings  have  been  related. 
They  were  probably  suspended  because  of  the  cold  weath- 
er. When  resumed,  they  were  generally  held  with  ^^^^^^^  ^j. 
regular  intervals  of  three  weeks,  their  business  counsof 

1  n        -I'      •\'  '  11  i'i*  Assistants. 

being  that  or  adjudicatmg  as  well  as  legislatmg 
upon  matters  of  organization,  criminal  and  civil  jurispru- 
dence, probate,  and  police.  An  order  was  passed  for  re- 
shipping  to  England  six  persons,  of  whose  offence 
nothing  more  is  recorded  than  that  they  were 
"  persons  unmeet  to  inhabit  here,"  and  for  sending  Sir 
Christopher  Gardiner  and  Mr.  "Wright  "  prisoners  into 
England  by  the  ship  Lion,  now  returning  thither."  The 
constable  of  Dorchester  was  fined  five  pounds  "for  taking 


March  1. 


1  Mather  says  (]\Iagnalia,  Book  11. 
Chap.  IV.  §  6)  that,  -when  this  vessel 
appeared,  the  Governor  "  was  distribut- 
ing the  last  handful  of  the  meal  in  the 
barrel  unto  a  poor  man  distressed  by 
the  wolf  at  the  door."  Contemporary 
relations  are  more  to  the  purpose,  as 
those  of  Clap  and  Johnson,  who  came 
with  Winthrop's  fleet.  "  O  the  hun- 
ger that  many  suffered ! "  writes  Clap 
(Memoirs,  p.  14),  "and  saw  no  hope 
in  an  eye  of  reason  to  be  supplied,  only 
by  clams,  and  mussels,  and  fish."  "  In 
the  absence  of  bread,"  says  Johnson, 
"  they  feasted  themselves  with  fish  ;  the 
women  once  a  day,  as  the  tide  gave 
way,  resorted  to  the  mussels,  and  clam- 
banks,  which  are  a  fish  as  big  as  horse- 
mussels,  where  they  daily  gathered  their 
families  food  with  much  heavenly  dis- 
course of  the  provisions  Christ  had 
formerly  made  for  many  thousands  of 
his  followers  in  the  wilderness.  Quoth 
one,  '  My  husband  hath  travelled  as 
far  as  Plymouth,'  (which  is  near  forty 

VOL.1.'  28 


miles,)  '  and  hath  with  great  toil  brought 
a  little  corn  home  with  him,  and  be- 
fore that  is  spent,  the  Lord  will  as- 
suredly provide.'  Quoth  the  other, 
'  Our  last  peck  of  meal  is  now  in  the 
oven  at  home  a-baking,  and  many  of 
our  godly  neighbors  have  quite  spent 
all,  and  we  owe  one  loaf  of  that  little 
we  have.'  Then  spake  a  third,  'My 
husband  hath  ventured  himself  among 
the  Indians  for  corn,  and  can  get  none, 
as  also  our  honored  Governor  hath  dis- 
tributed his  so  far,  that  a  day  or  two  more 
will  put  an  end  to  his  store,  and  all  the 
rest ;  and  yet  methinks  our  children  are 
as  cheerful,  fat,  and  lusty  with  feeding 
upon  those  mussels,  clam-banks,  and  oth- 
er fish,  as  they  were  in  England  with 
their  fill  of  bread;  which  makes  me 
cheerful  in  the  Lord's  providing  for  us, 
being  further  confirmed  by  the  exhor- 
tation of  our  pastor  to  trust  the  Lord 
with  providing  for  us,  whose  is  the  earth 
and  the  fulness  thereof.' "  (Wonder- 
Working   Providence,   Chap.  XXIV.) 


326  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

upon  liini  to  marry"  a  couple.  The  employment  of  In- 
dians in  families,  without  license  from  the  Court,  and  pay- 
ments to  them  in  silver  or  gold  coin,  were  forbidden.  A 
quack  was  sentenced  to  pay  a  fine,  besides  being  made 
liable  to  an  action  for  damages,  for  pretending  "  to  cure 
the  scurvy  by  a  water  of  no  worth  nor  value,  which  he  sold 
at  a  very  dear  rate."  A  "  surveyor  of  the  ordnance  and 
cannoneer"  was  appointed,  with  an  annual  stipend  of 
ten  pounds.  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall  was  ordered 
to  satisfy  two  Indians  for  the  loss  of  their  wig- 
wams, burned  by  his  careless  servants.  "Thomas  Fox, 
servant  of  Mr.  Cradock,"  was  sentenced  to  be  whipped, 
for  uttering  scandalous  speeches  against  the  Court. 

The  charter  required  the  presence  of  seven  Assistants 
with  the  Governor  or  Deputy-Governor  to  give  legal  force 
to  the  action  of  a  Court  of  Assistants.  A  departure  from 
this  provision  seemed  to  be  demanded  by  the  necessity 
of  the  case ;  and  a  Court  of  Assistants,  "  in  regard  the 
number  of  Assistants  were  but  few,  and  some  of  them  go- 
ing for  England,"  adopted  the  rule,  "  that,  whensoever  the 
number  of  Assistants  resident  within  the  limits  of  this  ju- 
risdiction should  be  fewer  than  nine,  it  should  be  lawful  for 
the  major  part  of  them  to  keep  a  Court ;  and  whatsoever 
orders  or  acts  they  made  should  be  as  legal  and  authentical 
as  if  there  Avere  the  full  number  of  seven  or  more."^  Sooner 
than  keep  up  the  legal  number  of  Assistants  by  an  elec- 
tion of  inferior  men,  they  did  not  scruple  to  disregard  the 
restrictions  of  their  fundamental  and  constituent  law. 

The  rule  which  had  limited  the  wages  of  artificers  and 

workmen  was  rescinded.     Towns  were  ordered  to  take  care 

to  have  every  person  within  their  limits,  "  except 

March  22.  .  .  . 

magistrates  and  ministers,"  provided  with  arms, 
those  of  ability  at  their  own  expense,  others  at  that  of  the 
town.  Such  as  had  "cards,  dice,  or  tables  in  their  houses," 
were  to  "  make  away  with  them  before  the  next  Court, 

1  Mass.  Col.  lice,  I.  82-84. 


Chap.  Vm.]  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY.  327 

under  pain  of  punishment."  Three  men  were  sentenced 
to  be  "  whipped  for  stealing  three  pigs."  Patrols  of  four 
men  were  appointed  to  be  kept  every  night  at 
Dorchester  and  at  Watertown,  the  southern  and 
western  outposts ;  and  military  companies  were  to  be 
trained  every  Saturday.  The  amount  of  ammunition  to 
be  kept  by  each  soldier  was  prescribed ;  and  the  firing  of 
a  gun  after  the  night  watches  were  set  was  made  punish- 
able by  whipping,  and  a  second  offence  by  measures  more 
severe.  Travellers  to  Plymouth  were  never  to  go  single 
or  unarmed.     A  servant  of  Mr.  Plumphrey  was 

May  3. 

ordered  to  be  "severely  whipped"  at  Boston  and 
Salem  for  striking  an  overseer  "  when  he  came  to  give 
him  correction  for  idleness  in  his  master's  work."  To  a 
servant  of  Mr.  Pelham  was  awarded  a  whipping  for 
"  unjust  selling  of  his  master's  tools."  John  Norman  was 
"fined  for  his  not  appearing  at  the  Court,  being  sum- 
moned." Rules  were  made  for  restraining  stray  cattle  and 
swine,  and  for  compensating  any  damages  done  by  them. 
The  indentures  of  a  servant  were  transferred  from  one  mas- 
ter to  another.  Walford,  the  smith,  found  at  Charlestown, 
was  fined  forty  shillings,  "  for  his  contempt  of  authority 
and  confronting  officers,"  and  was  enjoined  to  depart  with 
his  wife  "  out  of  the  limits  of  this  patent  before  the  twen- 
tieth day  of  October  next,  under  pain  of  confiscation  of 
his  goods."  The  Court  entertained  a  charge  against  Endi- 
cott  for  assault  and  battery,  and  caused  a  jury  to  be  im- 
panelled Avhich  amerced  him  in  forty  shillings.^ 

1  On  this  occasion,  Endicott,  -writing  -with  such  daring  of  me  witli  Ills  arms 

from  Salem  to  Winthrop  on  other  busi-  on  kembow,  &c.     It  -would  have  pro- 

ness,  said :  "  Sir,  I  desired  the  rather  to  voked  a  very  patient  man.     But  I  -will 

have  been  at  Court,  because  I  hear  I  -write  no  more  of  it,  but  leave  it  till  -we 

am  much  complained  on  by  goodman  speak  before  j'ou  face  to  face.      Only 

Dexter,  for  striking  him.     I  ackno-^vl-  thus  far  further,  that  he  hath  given  out, 

edge  I  -^vas  too  rash  In  striking  him,  if  I  had  a  purse  he  Avould  make  me 

understanding  since  that  it  is  not  la-wful  empty  it,  and  if  he  cannot  have  justice 

for  a  justice  of  peace  to  strike.     But  if  here,  he  will  do  -wonders  in  England, 

you  had  seen  the  manner  of  his  carriage,  and  if  he  cannot  prevail  there,  he  -svill 


328  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

There  were  very  few  natives  in  the  neighborhood  of  the 

new  settlements.    Chickatabot,  said  to  have  been  then  chief 

sachem  of  the  Massachusetts,   visited   Governor 

Visitor  .  f.    ,  .  .      . 

Chickatabot.  Winthrop    with   an  attendance  of   his   prnicipal 

March  23.  i,i-  •  i      •        '  n  -i-i 

men  and  their  wives,  bringing  irom  his  home  on 
Neponset  River  the  present  of  a  hogshead  of  Indian  corn.-^ 
Pleased  with  his  hospitable  reception,  he  repeat- 
ed his  visit  in  a  few  weeks,  and  a  communication 
of  good  offices  was  established."  The  Massachusetts  In- 
dians were  interested  to  make  the  English  their  protectors 
against  the  Tarratines,  of  whose  hostility  they  were  in 
constant  dread. 

A  visit  from  another  native  had  after  a  time  more  im- 
portant consequences.  An  Indian  from  Connecticut  River 
Embassy  Came  to  the  Governor,  with  a  request  "  to  have 
from  Con-      somo  Englishmen  to  come  plant  in  his  country, 

necticut  ^  '■  ^  '' 

E'ver.  and  offered  to  find  them  corn,  and  give  them  year- 
ly eighty  skins  of  beaver;  and  that  the  country 
was  very  fruitful,  &c.,  and  wished  that  there  might  be  two 
men  sent  with  him  to  see  the  country."  The  object  ap- 
peared to  be  to  obtain  an  alliance  with  the  English  against 
the  Pequots.  "The  Governor  entertained  them  at  dinner, 
but  would  send  none  with  him."  ^ 

At  the  opening  of  spring,  several  of  the  emigrants  went 
to  England ;  some,  as  Wilson  and  Coddington,''  to  bring 
their  families ;    others,   discouraged  or  for  other  reasons, 

try  it  out  ■wltli  mc  here  at  blows.     Sir,  the  old  quarrel  between  him  and  those 

I  desire  that  you  will  take  all  into  con-  of  Plymouth,  wherein  he  lost  seven  of 

sideration.     If  it  were  lawful  to  try  it  his  best  men."  (See  above,  pp.  202,  203.) 

at  blows,  and  he  a  fit  man  for  me  to  2  Winthrop,  I.  49,  54. 

deal  with,  you  should  not  hear  me  com-  3  Ibid.,  52. 

I)lain  ;  but  I  hope  the  Lord  hath  br()ujj;ht  4  Jn    Jjig    u  Demonstration    of    True 
me  off  from  that  course."    (Hutchinson,  Love  unto  you  the  Rulers  of  the  Col- 
Collections,  51,  52.)  ony  of  the  Massachusetts,"  ])ublished  in 
1  Dudley  says  of  Chickatabot  (Let-  1G74,  Coddington  says:  "Before  Bos- 

tcr,   &c.)   that  he   "hath  between   fif-     ton  Avas  named, I  built  the  first 

ty  and  si.xty  subjects.    This  man  least  pood  house,  in  which  the  said  Governor 

favorcth  the  English  of  any  sagamore  [Bi'llingham]  and  merchant  Braxel  now 

we  arc  acquainted  with,  by  reason  of  dwell."   (p.  4.) 


Chap.  VIII.]  MASSACHUSETTS  BAY.  829 

not  designing  to  return.^     A  number  of  the  congregation 
assembled  at  the  Governor's  house  to  bid  their  Return  of 
teacher  farewell.    There  was  a  magistracy  on  the  emigrants.^ 
spot,  and  the  civil  order  could  proceed;  but  in  '^^"''iso. 
the  teacher  s  absence,  some  provisional  arrangement  was 
necessary  for  the  well-being  of  the  church.     Mr.  Wilson, 
"  praying  and  exhorting  the  congregation  to  love,"  com- 
mitted to  Winthrop,    Dudley,  and   Nowell     the    ruling 
elder,  the  trust  of  conducting  public  worship  ;    and,   at 
his  request,  the  Governor  commended  him  and  his  fellow- 
voyagers  to  the  Divine  protection  with  prayer.^ 

It  had  been  intended  that  the  vessel  in  which  Wilson 
sailed  for  England  should  carry  a  passenger  of  very  differ- 
ent character.      Christopher*  Gardiner  was  one  of  ^.  ^^ . 

^  Sir  Christo- 

those  mysterious  visitors  whose  appearance  in  re-  phercardi- 
mote  settlements  so  easily  stimulates  the  imagina- 
tions of  men  of  more  staid  habits,  and  better  mutual 
acquaintance.  Who  he  was,  and  whence  and  why  he 
came  to  New  England,  which  he  did  just  before  the  ar- 
rival of  Winthrop,  was  never  known  with  certainty.^  It 
is  not  improbable  that  he  was  an  agent,  or  spy,  of  Sir 
Ferdinando  Gorges,  with  whom  he  is  known  to  have  cor- 
responded.^ Perhaps  he  was  only  one  of  those  eccen- 
tric lovers  of  roaming  and  adventure  who  are  attracted 

1  After  several  months'  experience  of  I  thank  God,  I  like  so  well  to  be  here, 
the  country,  Dudley  had  written :  "  If  as  I  do  not  repent  my  coming.  And  if 
any  come  hither  to  plant  for  worldly  I  were  to  come  again,  I  would  not  have 
ends,  that  can  live  well  at  home,  he  altered  my  course,  though  I  had  fore- 
commits  an  error  of  which  he  will  soon  seen  all  these  afflictions." 

repent  him;  but if  any  godly  2  Winthrop,  I.  50. 

men,  out  of  religious  ends,  will  come  ^  "  He  came  into  these  parts  under 
over  to  help  us  in  the  good  work  we  are  pretence  of  forsaking  the  world,  and  to 
about,  I  think  they  cannot  dispose  of  live  a  private  life   in  a  godly  course  ; 
themselves  nor  of  their  estates  more  to  not  unwilling  to  put   himself   on  any 
God's  glory  and  the  furtherance  of  their  mean  employments  and  take  any  pains 
own  reckoning."    (Letter  to  the  Count-  for   his   living,   and    sometime   offered 
ess  of  Lincoln.)     Winthrop  had  written  himself  to  join  to  the  churches  in  sun- 
to  his  wife  (I.  453)  :   "  We  here  enjoy  dry  places."     (Bradford,  294.) 
God   and   Jesus    Christ.      Is   not   this  ^  Winthrop,  History,  I.  57. 
enough  ?    What  would  we  have  more  ? 
28* 


330  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

by  newly  opened  regions  and  new  forms  of  life.  He 
called  himself  Sir  Christopher  Gardiner;  and  that  he 
was  entitled  to  the  designation  may  be  inferred  from  its 
being  given  to  him  in  some  proceedings  of  the  Privy 
Council.^  Among  other  particulars  of  the  ill  repute  which 
followed  him,  one  was,  that  he  was  a  Knight  of  the  Holy 
Sepulchre,  and  another  that  he  was  a  "  nephew  "  (a  kins- 
man at  some  remove)  of  Gardiner,  Bishop  of  Winchester 
in  Queen  Mary's  day.  Governor  Dudley  wrote,^  that,  ac- 
cording to  information  received  by  the  magistrates,  he 
had  been  a  great  traveller  in  Europe  and  the  East,  and 
had  now  two  wives  living  in  England,  while  in  Massa- 
chusetts he  was  attended  by  a  female  companion  whom 
he  gave  out  to  be  his  cousin,  but  who,  when  examined, 
appeared  to  know  but  little  of  his  position  or  his  objects. 
His  incognito^  his  apparent  immorality,  and  his  imputed 
Popery  (afterwards  ascertained  from  some  papers  dropped 
by  him  at  Plymouth)  were  so  many  causes  of  the  disfavor 
under  which  he  labored,  and  united  to  make  his  presence 
undesirable.  The  wives,  or  one  of  them,  sent  a  complaint 
against  him  to  the  Governor,  who  set  on  foot  measures 
for  his  apprehension,  which  coming  to  his  -knowledge,  he 
took  to  flight,  and  wandered  about  for  a  month  among  the 
Indians.  At  length,  he  was  given  up  by  them  at  Ply- 
mouth, from  which  place  Captain  Underbill,  in  the  service 
of  the  Massachusetts  magistrates,  brought  him  to  Boston,^ 
two  months  after  the  passage  of  the  order  which  has  been 
mentioned  for  his  transportation  to  England.  The  master 
of  the  Lion  could  not  be  persuaded  to  take  charge  of 
him,  and  it  was  some  months  longer  before  he  could  be 
gotten  rid  of  Arrived  in  England,  where  he  does  not 
appear  to  have  been  restrained  of  his  liberty,  he 
soon  found  out  the  enemies  of  the  colony,  and 
engaged  actively  in  intrigues  to  its  prejudice. 

1  Soe  below,  p.  305,  note  2.  3  Bradford,    History,    295.  —  Win- 

2  Letter  to  the  Countess  of  Lincoln,      ibrop,  History,  I.  55,  57. 


CHAPTEE   IX. 

It  has  been  mentioned,  that,  at  the  time  to  which  the 
history  of  the  Massachusetts  Colony  has  been  brought 
down,  the  older  settlement  at  Plymouth  had  increased 
to  the  number  of  about  three  hundred  persons,  and 
that,  about  the  time  of  the  discharge  from  their  engage- 
ments to  the  London  partners,  they  had  extended  their 
trading  operations  both  to  the  east  and  to  the  west.  The 
place  of  the  crazy  Hogers,  the  minister  brought  over  by 
Allerton,  and  soon  sent  back,  was  supplied  by  jcog. 
Smith,  who  had  come  with  Higginson's  fleet.  ^""^- 
Some  of  the  Plymouth  people  found  him  at  Nantasket, 
"  weary  of  being  in  that  uncouth  place,  and  in  a  poor 
house  that  would  neither  keep  him  nor  his  goods  dry. 
So  seeing  him  to  be  a  grave  man,  and  understood  he  had 
been  a  minister,  though  they  had  no  order  for  any  such 
thing,  yet  they  presumed  and  brought  him.     He  was  here 

accordingly  kindly  entertained  and  housed, and 

exercised  his  gifts  among  them,  and  afterwards  was  chosen 
into  the  ministry,  and  so  remained  for  sundry  years."  ^ 

A  few  weeks  before  the  new  minister  came,  thirty-five 
members  of  the  Leyden  church  had  joined  their  friends, 
accomplishing  a  long-deferred  hope  of  both  par-  Au-ust. 
ties.  The  poor  people  at  Plymouth,  just  in-  eJi^mln 
volved  in  new  pecuniary  obligations  to  an  op-  ^'"'"  ^'^y^^'^- 
pressive  amount,  were  but  too  happy,  not  only  to  defray 
all  the  expenses  of  the  new-comers,  but  to  give  them 
dwellings,   and   supply  them  with  food  for  more  than  a 

1  Bradford,  3G3.  —  Smith  probably  left  riymouth  in  1G35.     (See  Mass.  Ilist. 
Coll.,  IV.  108.) 


332  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

year,  till  there  was  time  for  them  to  make  provision  for 
themselves.' 

Allerton,  who  on  his  late  visit  to  England  had  endeav- 
ored without  success  to  obtain  an  amendment  of  the  pa- 
tent, prospered  better  in  a  second  attempt.  The  Coun- 
Third  patent  cil  for  Ncw  England  conveyed  to  AVilliam  Brad- 
"  ^'irao.""'   ford,  his  heirs,  associates,  and  assigns,  a  tract  of 

Jan.  13.  \^Yi^  includiug  New  Plymouth,  and  another  on 
the  Kennebec,  —  both  of  which,  however,  for  want  of 
geographical  knowledge,  were  imperfectly  defined.  The 
patent  recites,  that  it  is  given  "  in  consideration  that  Wil- 
liam Bradford  and  his  associates  have  for  these  nine  years 
lived  in  New  England,  and  have  there  inhabited,  and 
planted  a  town  called  by  the  name  of  New  Plymouth,  at 

their  own  proper  costs  and  charges ;  and  now, by  the 

special  providence  of  God  and  their  extraordinary  care 
and  industry,  they  have  increased  their  plantation  to  near 
three  hundred  people,  and  are  upon  all  occasions  able  to 
relieve  any  new  planters  or  other  his  Majesty's  subjects 
who  may  fall  upon  that  coast."  It  empowers  Bradford, 
"his  associates,  his  heirs,  and  assigns,  at  all  times  here- 
after, to  incorporate,  by  some  usual  or  fit  name  and  title, 
him  or  themselves,  or  the  people  there  inhabiting  under 
him  or  them,  with  liberty  to  them  and  their  successors 
from  time  to  time  to  frame  and  make  orders,  ordinances, 
and  constitutions,"  not  contrary  to  the  laws  of  England, 
or  to  any  frame  of  government  established  by  the  Council, 
"  and  the  same  to  put  or  cause  to  be  put  in  execution  by 
such  officers  and  ministers  as  he  and  they  shall  authorize 
and  depute"  ;  and,  "  for  their  several  defence,  to  encounter, 
expulse,  repel,  and  resist  by  force  of  arms,  as  well  by  sea 

as  by  land,  by  all  ways  and  means  whatsoever,  and 

to  take,  apprehend,  seize,  and  make  prize  of  all  such  per- 
sons, their  ships  and  goods,  as  shall  attempt  to  inhabit  or 
trade  with  the  savage  people  of  that  country  within  the 

1  Bradford,  245  -  248. 


Chap.  IX]  PLYMOUTH.  333 

several  precincts  and  limits  of  his  and  their  several  plan- 
tation, or  shall  enterprise  or  attempt,   at  any  time,  de- 
struction,  invasion,  detriment,  or  annoyance  to  his  and 
their    said    plantation."      In    short,    the   patent   invested 
Bradford  and   his   associates,  in  respect  to   the   granted 
territory,  with  all  the  power  which  the  Council,  by  its 
charter,  was  made  capable  of  conveying  to  its  assigns. 
A  royal  charter,  with  the  same  powers  as  that  of  the  Mas- 
sachusetts Company,  was  much  desired  by  the  Plymouth 
people.     At  Allerton's  solicitation,  orders  were  given  by 
the  Privy  Council  for  the  preparation  of  such  an  instru- 
ment; and  the  business  seemed  proceeding  prosperously, 
when  a  clause  for  exonerating  the  colony  from  the  pay- 
ment of  customs  for  seven  years,  which  appears  to  have 
been  inserted  by  Allerton  without  instructions,^  occasioned 
objections,    delay,    and   finally   complete    disappointment. 
New  Plymouth  Colony,  though  soliciting  it  often,  and  at 
no  small  expense,  was  never  able,  before  its  annexation  to 
Massachusetts,  to  obtain  any  better  foundation  for  its  gov- 
ernment than  the  patent  of  the  Council  for  New  England.^ 
Another  party  of  Leyden  people  presently  came  over. 
The  two  cost  their  American  friends  five  hundred  and 
fifty  pounds  sterling  for  their  outfit  and  transpor-      May. 
tation  from  Holland,  in  addition  to  the  expense  gratLTfrom 
of  their  reception  and  of  their  support  till  the  ^^y''^"- 
second  following  harvest ;  "  and  this  charge  of  maintain- 
ing them  all  this  while  was  little  less  than  the  former 
sum."     But  the  burden  was  more  than  willingly  borne  ; 
"  a  rare  example,"  writes  the  reasonably  complacent  Gov- 
ernor, •'  of  brotherly  love  and  Christian  care  in  performing 

1  Bradford,  252.     Bradford  thought  a  charter  for  Plymouth.     (INIass.  Hist, 

that  Allerton  raised  the  question  for  a  Coll.,  III.  71,  72.) 
selfish  purpose,  "  to  have  an  opportunity         ^  Xhe  patent  is  in  Hazard,  I.  298 

to  be  sent  over  again,  for  other  regards."  et  seq.     The  original  instrument,  Tvith 

Shirley  supposed  that  not  only  Sir  Fer-  the  signature  of  the  Earl  of  "Warwick, 

dinando    Gorges,   but   Cradock,    Win-  and  what  remains  of  the  seal  of  the 

throp,  and  others  of  the  Massachusetts  Council,  is  kept  at  Plymouth,  in  the 

Company,  interested  themselves  against  office  of  the  Register  of  Deeds. 


334  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

their  promises  and  covenants  to  their  brethren,  and  in  a 
sort  beyond  their  power."  ^  The  consequence  of  this  gen- 
erosity was  eminently  beneficial.  In  proportion  as  mem- 
bers of  the  Leyden  congregation  became  numerous  at  Ply- 
mouth, the  better  party  there  —  the  party  of  Bradford, 
Brewster,  and  their  compeers  —  was  strengthened,  and  the 
colony  was  made  to  conform  more  to  its  original  design.^ 

Soon  after  this  increase  of  numbers,  an  incident  occurred 
which  occasioned  much  unhappiness.  John  Billington, 
An  execution  o^  Plymoutli,  —  a  troublcsome  associate  from  the 
for  murder,  beginning,  —  having  been  convicted  of  wilful 
murder  after  trial  by  a  jury,  the  magistrates  consulted  "  Mr. 
Winthrop  and  other  the  ablest  gentlemen  in  the  Bay  of 
the  Massachusetts,"  respecting  their  competency  to  inflict 
the  penalty  of  that  crime.  They  advised,  with  unani- 
mous consent,  that  the  murderer  "  ought  to  die, 

September, 

and  the  land  be  purged  from  blood  "  ;  and  he  was 
executed  accordingly.'"'  It  was  the  first  instance  of  capital 
punishment  in  New  England.  The  colonists  might  well 
question  their  right  to  inflict  that  penalty.  But  it  was 
idle  to  think  of  finding  the  needed  protection  for  their 
lives  in  courts  three  thousand  miles  away.  And  the  ne- 
cessity of  the  case  seemed  to  impose  upon  them  the  re- 
sponsibility of  administering  Avhat  they  esteemed  the  law 
of  nature  and  of  God. 

For  four  or  five  years  from  this  time,  the  business  rela- 
tions between  the  partners  at  New  Plymouth  and  those  at 
London  became  more  and  more  complicated  and  unsatisfac- 
tory. Allerton,  who  passed  back  and  forward  between  them 
as  agent  for  the  Plymouth  associates,  fell  under  their  serious 
displeasure  for  transactions  implicating  them  without  their 
authority,  as  well  as  for  other  alleged  misconduct,  and  was 

1  Bradford,  2-18,  249.  that  they  were  not  of  the  most  consid- 

"  "  They  ■vvere  such  as  feared  God,  crable  persons  left  at  Leyden,  nor  of 

and  were  both  weleomc  and  useful,"  such  as  ■were  best  able  to  provide  for 

•wrote  Bradford  (Letter-Book,  in  ]\Iass.  themselves. 

Ilist.  Coll.,  III.  70),  though  he  regretted  3  Bradford,  276. 


Chap.  IX.]  PLYMOUTH.  335 

continued  in  liis  trust  only  through  tenderness  for  Brew- 
ster, Avhose  daughter  was  Allerton's  wife.  In  two  years 
he  had  raised  their  debt  from  four  hundred  to  four  thou- 
sand pounds.  Still,  under  the  honest  and  wise  conduct 
of  Bradford  and  his  associates,  affairs  prosjjered  on  the 
small  scale  which  belonged  to  them.  "  Though  the  part- 
ners were  plunged  into  great  engagements,  and  oppressed 
with  unjust  debts,  yet  the  Lord  prospered  their  trading, 

that  they  made  yearly  large  returns Also  the 

people  of  the  plantation  besran  to  j^row  in  their 

-■^         ••  ^  .  Increase  of 

outward  estates,  by  reason  of  the  flowino^  of  many  ■'veauh  at 

,.  ,  .-,.",_,*^     Plymouth. 

people  into  the  country,  especially  into  the  Bay 
of  the  Massachusetts,  by  which   means   corn  and  cattle 
rose  to  a  great  price,  by  which  many  were  much  enriched, 
and  commodities  grew  plentiful."  ^ 

A  party  of  Narragansett  I-ndians  having  pursued  some 
Pokanoket  allies   of   Plymouth  to   an   English    outpost, 
Winthrop   sent  twenty-seven    pounds  of  powder      1^30. 
to  Standish,  who  had  been  despatched  to  their    ^p''^^-- 
relief;    upon   which   the    Xarragansetts  withdrew.      An 
event  of  no  little  interest  was  a  visit  of  Governor    October. 
Winthrop  to  Plymouth,  accompanied  by  his  pas-  al.nvnron 
tor,  Mr.  Wilson.      The  journey  took  two  days  '^^^^y^^^'^- 
each  way.- 

1  Bradford,  255,  256,  279,  280,  286,  in  the  Province  of  New  Netherlands." 

289-291,302,  309.  — Allerton  was  dis-  In  1643,  Winthrop  (II.  9G)  speaks  of 

charged  from  his  agency  for  the  planta-  him  as  being  at  New  Amsterdam,  but 

tion  in  1630.    (Ibid.,  276.)    But  he  was  calls  him  "Mr.  Allerton  of  New  Haven." 

chosen  to  be  one  of  the  Assistants  as  He  was  at  New  Plaven  in  February, 

late  as  1633.    In  the  spring  of  1635,  he  1645   (Ibid.,  210),  and  is  occasionally 

was  at  ]\Iarblehead,  as  appears  from  an  mentioned   in  its  Records   during  the 

order  of  the   Massachusetts  Assistants  next  seven  years.     He  died  there  in 

passed  March  4,  for  his  removal  from  February,  1659,  and  lies  buried  in  the 

that  place.     (Mass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  142.)  public  square.    (Dr.  Bacon's  Letter,  in 

Marblehead  was  part  of  Salem, and  Aller-  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  XX\T[I.  242.)      He 

ton  may  have  followed  Roger  Williams  had  "  built  a  grand  house  on  the  creek, 

thither  from  Plymouth.  A  writing  of  his  with  four  porches."     (Stiles,  History  of 

is  preserved  (Plym.  Rec,  II.  133),  in  Three  of  the  Judges,  65.) 
which,  under  the  date  of  Oct.  27,  1646,         ^  Such  an  incident  should  be  related 

he  styles  himself  "  of  New  Amsterdam  in  Winthrop's  own  words  (I.  91  -93)  : 


33G 


HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 


[Book  I. 


As  property  and  a  sense  of  security  increased,  the  people 
at  Plymouth  showed  a  disposition  to  disperse,  for  the  con- 
venience of  more  pasturage  and  other  accommodations. 
"  The  town,  in  which  they  lived  compactly  till  now,  was 
left  very  thin,  and  in  a  short  time  almost  desolate.  And 
if  this  had  been  all,  it  had  been  less,  though  much.  But 
the  church  must  also  be  divided,  and  those  that  had  lived 
so  long  together  in  Christian  and  comfortable  fellowship 
must  now  part  and  suffer  many  divisions."  A  separate 
Duxbury  and  cliurcli  aud  towu,  with  the  name  of  Duxhiiry,  were 
Marsiiiicid.  establislicd  on  the  north  side  of  the  harbor,  and 
pastures  were  assigned  at  Marshjield  to  such  as  engaged 
to  keep   them  by  servants,   and  not  remove   themselves 


"  The  GoTemor,  with  Mr.  Wilson,  pastor 
of  Boston,  and  the  two  captains,  &c.,  went 
aboard  the  Lion  [October  25],  and  from 
thence  Mr.  Peirce  carried  them  in  his 
shallop  to  Wessaguscus.  The  next 
morning  Mr.  Peirce  returned  to  his 
ship,  and  the  Governor  and  his  compa- 
ny went  on  foot  to  Plymouth,  and  came 
thither  within  the  evening.  The  Gov- 
ernor of  Plymouth,  Mr.  William  Brad- 
ford, (a  very  discreet  and  grave  man,) 
■with  Mr.  Brewster,  the  elder,  and  some 
others,  came  Ibrth  and  met  them  with- 
out the  town,  ami  conducted  them  to 
the  Governor's  liouse,  where  they  were 
very  kindly  entertained,  and  feasted 
every  day  at  several  houses.  On  the 
I^ord's  day  there  was  a  sacrament, 
which  they  did  partake  in ;  and  in  the 
afternoon  Mr.  lloger  Williams  (accord- 
ing to  their  custom)  propounded  a  ques- 
tion, to  which  the  pastor,  Mr.  Smith, 
spoke  briedy  ;  then  !Mr.  Williams  proph- 
esied ;  and  after,  the  Governor  of  Ply- 
mouth 8|Kjke  to  the  question ;  after  him 
the  elder ;  then  some  two  or  three  more 
of  the  congregation.  Then  the  elder 
desired  tlie  Governor  of  ^Massachusetts 
and  Mr.  Wilson  to  speak  to  it,  which 
they  did.  When  this  was  ended,  the 
deacon,  Mr.  Fuller,  put  the  congrega- 


tion in  mind  of  their  duty  of  contribu- 
tion ;  whereupon  the  Governor  and  all 
the  rest  went  down  to  the  deacon's  seat, 
and  put  into  the  box,  and  then  returned. 
About  five  in  the  morning  [Oc- 
tober 31],  the  Governor  and  his  com- 
pany came  out  of  Plymouth ;  the  Gov- 
ernor of  PljTiiouth,  with  the  pastor  and 
elder,  &c.  accompanying  them  near 
half  a  mile  out  of  town  in  the  dark. 
The  lieutenant.  Holmes,  with  two  oth- 
ers, and  the  Governor's  mare,  came 
along  with  them  to  the  great  swamp, 
about  ten  miles.  When  they  came  to 
the  great  river,  they  were  carried  over 
by  one  Luddam,  their  guide  (as  they 
had  been  when  they  came,  the  stream 
being  very  strong,  and  up  to  the  crotch) ; 
so  the  Governor  called  that  passage 
Luddum's  Ford.  Thence  they  came  to 
a  place  called  Hue's  Cross.  The  Gov- 
ernor, being  displeased  at  the  name,  in 
respect  that  such  things  might  hereafter 
give  the  Papists  occasion  to  say  that 
their  religion  was  first  planted  in  these 
parts,  changed  the  name,  and  called  it 
Hue's  Folly.  So  they  came,  that  even- 
ing, to  Wessaguscus,  where  they  were 
bountifully  entertained,  as  before,  with 
store  of  turkeys,  geese,  ducks,  &c.,  and 
the  next  day  came  safe  to  Boston." 


1C33. 
Jeinic 
sickness. 


Chap.  IX.]  PLYMOUTH.  337 

from  the  original  settlement.^     In  the  year  following  this 

dispersion,  Plymouth  was  afflicted  by  the  spread 

of  "  an  infectious  fever,  of  which  many  fell  very  Epwe 

sick,  and  upwards  of  twenty  persons  died,  men 

and  women,  besides  children,  and  sundry  of  them  of  their 

ancient  friends  who  had  lived  in  Holland ; and  in 

the  end,  after  he  had  much  helped  others,  Samuel  Fuller, 
who  was  their  surgeon  and  physician,  and  had  been  a 
great  help  and  comfort  unto  them,  as  in  his  faculty  so 
otherwise,  being  a  deacon  of  the  church,  a  man  godly  and 
forward  to  do  good,  being  much  missed  after  his  death ; 
and  he  and  the  rest  of  their  brethren  much  lamented  by 
them,  and  caused  much  sadness  and  mourning  amongst 
them."  2 

Plymouth  w^as  the  first  of  the  English  settlements  to 
sufi'er  from  French  depredation.     The  Plymouth  partners, 
in  connection  with  four  of  their  London  friends,  had  re- 
luctantly consented  to  establish  a  trading-house  on  the 
Penobscot,  under  the  charge  of  one  Edward  Ashley,  with 
whom  Allerton  had  treated  for  that  purpose  in 
London.     Ashley  did  not  remain  long  in  Amer- 
ica, and  the  post  fell  under  the  care  of  Allerton.^     The 
third  article  of  the  treaty  of  St.  Germain's  ceded     1032. 
back  to  France  the  American  territory  lately  con-  »'="''='' 29- 
quered  by  England,  including  "  all  the  places  occupied  in 
New  France,  Acadia,  and  Canada  by  subjects  of  his  Ma- 
jesty of  Great  Britain."  ^     The  extent  of  Acadia  to  the 
west  was  long  a  subject  of  dispute.     Claiming  the  Eng- 
lish post  on  the  Penobscot  as  within  the  domain  ^^^  ^^^^^^ 
of  their  sovereign,  a  party  of  French,  in  a  small  «>  t"«  ^^• 

O     ^  L  J  ^     '  nobscot. 

vessel,  attacked  and  rifled  it,  carrying  ofl"  three 
hundred  pounds'  weight  of  beaver  and  other  goods,  to  the 

1  Bradford,  302,  304.   The  Governor  and  will  provoke  the  Lord's  displeasure 

contemplated  this  beginning  of  a  dis-  against  them." 
persion  with  much  uneasiness:   "This,         2  Ibid.,  314. 
I  fear,  will  be  the  ruin  of  New  England,         3  Ibid.,  257  -  259,  267,  275. 
at  least  of  the  churches  of  God  there,        *  The  article  is  in  Hazard,  I.  319. 

VOL.  I.  29 


338  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

value  of  more  than  five  hundred  pounds  sterling.^   The  fol- 
lowing year  an  assault,  accompanied  with  greater  violence, 
was  made  upon  a  factory  established  by  Ashley 
and  others  at  what  is  now  Machias.     Not  only 
was  the  property  there  deposited  stolen,  but  two  English- 
men were  killed,  and  three  were  carried  away  prisoners.^ 
Their  other  eastern  trading-house,   on  the  Kennebec, 
gave  occasion  to  a  disaster  of  a  different  nature.     Under 
Affray  on  the  thcir  patcut  Hglit  to  territory  on  this  river,  the 
Kennebec,     piymouth  pcoplo  claimcd   the  monopoly   of  its 
Indian  traffic.     A  person  named  Hocking,  in  command 
of  a  vessel  from  the  Piscataqua  belonging  to  Lord  Say 
1C34.      and  Sele,  insisted  on  going  up  the  river  to  trade. 
April.      Howland,  the  Plymouth    commander,   after  un- 
availing remonstrance,  ordered  his  men  to  cut  the  cable 
by  which  the  ship  was  anchored.     Hocking  shot  one  of 
them,  and  was  himself  shot  dead  in  return.    The  business, 
as  threatening  mischief  to  all  the  colonies,  was  taken  up 
bv  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts.     Alden, 

May  14.  '  /.      , 

one  of  the  party  and  a  principal  person  of  Ply- 
mouth, coming  presently  after  on  a  visit  to  Boston,  was 
detained  to  answer  to  the  charge ;  and  the  Massachusetts 
Magistrates  were  scarcely  induced  to  desist  from  a  prosecu- 
tion of  it  by  explanations  which  Standish  first,  and  after- 

1  Winthrop,  79.  —  Bradford,  293, 294.  Bagaduce,  Castine] .    Their  connection 

Bradford  erroneously  places  this   inci-  with  him  was  unfortunate.     He  turned 

dentin  1631.     Holmes  says  (Annals,  out  as  ill  as  they  had  augured  from  the 

I.  21 7)  :  "  The  French had  rifled  beginning.     (Bradford,  259.)     On  the 

the  trading-house,  belonging  to  Ply-  31st  of  December,  1G31,  the  Attorney- 
mouth,  at  Penobs(;ot."  But  in  a  note  he  General  was  ordered  to  proceed  against 
refers  to  the  factory  established  on  the  him  in  the  Star  Chamber  for  furnishing 
Kennebec  in  1628  (see  above,  p.  230),  arms  and  ammunition  to  the  savages; 
and  adds  :  "  Whether  they  had  set  up  and  on  the  following  1 7th  of  February 
another  at  Penobscot,  or  whether  these  he  was  discharged  from  the  Fleet 
neighboring  places  were  sometimes  Prison,  (his  oflTenee  having  been  corn- 
called  by  the  same  name,  does  not  ap-  mitted  before  the  royal  proclamation 
pear."  I  think  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  forbidding  it,)  under  a  bond  "not  to 
trading-house  robbed  by  the  French  was  offend  in  the  like  kind  hereafter." 
the  same  which  the  Plymouth  people  (.Journal  of  the  Privy  Council.) 
had  joined  with  Ashley  iu  establishing  •  Winthrop,  117,  154;  Bradford,  291, 
on  the  Penobscot,  at  Peutagoet  [Point  292,  328. 


Chap.  IX.]  PLYMOUTH.  339 

wards  Bradford,  Winslow,  and  Smith,  the  minister,  were 
sent  to  make  in  person.  At  last,  at  a  conference  in  Bos- 
ton, to  which  the  Plymouth  people  invited  all  "  the  neigh- 
bor plantations,"  —  but  at  which  "  none  appeared,  but 
some  of  the  magistrates  and  ministers  of  the  Massachu- 
setts and  their  own,"  —  it  was  agreed  that,  "  though  they 
all  could  have  wished  these  things  had  never  been,  yet 
they  could  not  but  lay  the  blame  and  guilt  on  Hocking's 
own  head."  ^  Winslow  soon  after  went  a  third  time  to 
England,  partly  on  the  errand  of  satisfying  and  conciliat- 
ing Lord  Say  and  Sele. 

While  these  events  occurred  on  the  Eastern  rivers,  the 
enterprise  of  the  Plymouth  people  had  been  taking  a  dif- 
ferent direction.      Though  as  yet  their  humble  piymomh 
circumstances  had  kept  them  admonished  of  the  th^cTnnect- 
necessity  of  cautious   movements,  they  had  not  '""*• 
been  inattentive  listeners   to  information,  brought  from 
time  to  time  by  native  and  by  Dutch  visitors,  of  a  river  to 
the  west  of  them,  called  the  Fresh  River  and  the  Connecti- 
cut River,  "  a  fine  place  both  for  plantation  and  trade." 
The  descriptions  of  it  by  parties  who  had  occasionally 
visited  it,  "  not  without  profit,"  confirmed  the  favorable 
impressions  which  had  been  made.     They  had  been  in- 
formed of  the  visit  made  to  Winthrop,  in  the  first     jcaj. 
spring  after  his  landing,  by  a  chief  and  others,   '^p"'''" 
who  had  offered  him  a   settlement  on   the  Connecticut, 
with  a  yearly  tribute  of  corn  and  beaver."     At  length,  the 
plan  was  conceived  of  a  partnership  among  individuals  of 
the  two  colonies  in  a  trade  to  that  region,  and  Winslow, 
who  had  himself  visited'  it,  repaired  with  Bradford      1033. 
to  Boston  for  a  conference.     By  building  a  forti-    "^"'^  ^" 

1  Winthrop,  I.  131, 136. — Mass.  Col.  occasion  to  the  king  to  send  a  General 

Rec,   I.    116.  —  Bradford,   316-322.  Governor  over,  and  besides  had  brought 

Bradford  calls  this  "  one  of  the  saddest  us  all,  and  the  Gospel,  under  a  common 

things    that    befell    them    since    they  reproachof  cutting  one  another's  throats 

came."  Winthrop  says  (131)  it  had  been  for  beaver." 
feared  that  the  transaction  "  would  give         2  gee  above,  p.  328. 


340  HISTORY   OF   NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

fied  trading-liouse,  they  proposed  to  anticipate  the  Dutch, 
who  were  rcpoited  to  have  the  same  scheme  in  view.^ 

Discouraged  by  what  they  had  heard  of  the  shallow- 
ness of  the  river,  and  the  number  of  warlike  Indians  on 
its  banks,  the  Massachusetts  people  concluded  to  take  no 
part  in  the  project.     Those  of  Plymouth  then  prosecuted 
it  alone,  and  sent  a  vessel  wdth  the  frame  of  a 
house,  and  workmen  and  materials  for  its  con- 
struction.    At  some  distance  up  the  river  (where  now  is 
Hartford),  they  were   challenged  by   a  party  of   Dutch, 
W'ho  had  thrown  up  a  rude  work,  and  mounted  two  small 
cannon.       After  a  parley  and  mutual  threats,  the  English 
j)assed  on  without  being  assailed,  landed  at  what  is  now 
the  town  of  Windsor,  put  up,  fortified,  and  provisioned 
their  house,  and  then  separated,  a  part  to  hold  it,  the 
rest   to   return    as  they  came.      A  company  of  seventy 
Dutch,  who  in  the  following  year  came  from  New  Am- 
sterdam to  expel  the  intruders,  having  made  their  obser- 
1C34.      vations  on  the  spirit  and  the  dispositions  of  the 
December.  \[^iIq  garrisou,  wcrc  prevailed  on  to  retire  without 
violence.-     It  was  not  by  Dutchmen  that  the  Plymouth 
people  were  to  be  dispossessed  of  Connecticut. 

All  that  is  extant  of  what  can  properly  be  called  the 
legislation  of  the  first  twelve  years  of  the  Colony  of  Ply- 
Eariy  logis-  moutli  suffices  to  cover  in  print  only  two  pages  of 
latio.iat        r^jj  octavo  volume.^     That  of  the  first  five  years 

Plyiiioutli.  •' 

1C23.  consists  of  the  single  regulation,  "  that  all  criminal 
facts,  and  also  all  manner  of  trespasses  and  debts 
between  man  and  man,  shall  be  tried  by  the  verdict  of 
twche  honest  men,  to  be  impanelled  by  authority  in  form 
of  a  jury  upon  their  oath."  For  seven  years  more,  the 
only  standing  laws  which  appear  to  have  been  found 
necessary  were  some  simple  prohibitions  of  the  employ- 

1  "Wintlirop,  10.5.  3  Biigham,  Compact,  -with  the  Char- 

2  Bradford,  311 -314. —Wintlirop,  tor  and  Laws,  of  the  Colony  of  New 
I.    10.5,    113.— Brodhead,    History    of     riymouth,  28-30. 

New  York,  I.  234,  235,  210-242. 


Chap.  IX.]  PLYMOUTH.  341 

ment  of  handicraftsmen  by  "  any  strangers  or  foreigners 
till  such   time  as   the  necessity   of  the    Colony      jcoc. 
be  served,"    of  the  exportation  of  timber,  corn,  ^archag. 
beans,   or  pease    "  without   the  leave  and  license  of  the 
Governor  and  Council,"   and  of  the  covering  of     icss. 
dwelling-houses  "  with  any  kind  of  thatch  " ;  with  J»""="'y  ^• 
some  arrangements  respecting  the  division  of  lands  and 
the  accompanying  rights  of  way,  and  respecting  the  gath- 
ering of  fuel,  fishing,  hunting,  and  fowling. 

In  the  thirteenth  year  of  the  settlement,  a  penal  pro- 
vision had  to  be  adopted  to  protect  the  public  weal 
against  the  prevailing  absence  of  ambition  for  public 
office  ;  and  "  it  was  enacted,  by  public  consent  of  ^-33. 
the  freemen  of  this  society  of  New  Plymouth,  that  •^''"'  '• 
if  now  or  hereafter  any  were  elected  to  the  office  of  Gov- 
ernor and  would  not  stand  to  the  election,  nor  hold  and 
execute  the  office  for  his  year,  that  then  he  be  amerced  in 
twenty  pounds  sterling  fine;  and,  in  case  refused  to  be 
paid  upon  the  lawful  demand  of  the  ensuing  Governor, 
then  to  be  levied  out  of  the  goods  or  chattels  of  the  said 
person  so  refusing.  It  was  further  ordered  and  decreed, 
that  if  any  were  elected  to  the  office  of  council  and  re- 
fused to  hold  the  place,  that  then  he  be  amerced  in  ten 
pounds  sterling  fine,  and  in  case  refused  to  be  paid,  to  be 
forthwith  levied.  It  was  further  decreed  and  enacted,  that 
in  case  one  and  the  same  person  should  be  elected  Gover- 
nor a  second  year,  having  held  the  place  the  foregoing 
year,  it  should  be  lawful  for  him  to  refuse  without  any 
amercement ;  and  the  company  to  proceed  to  a  new  elec- 
tion, except  they  can  prevail  with  him  by  entreaty."  ^ 

At  his  urgent  request,  Bradford  was  now  for  the  first 
time  excused  from  the  office  of  Governor,   and   Edward 
Winslow,  who  some  months  before  had  returned     j^go 
from  his  second  visit  to  England,  was  chosen  his    •'""«5- 
successor,  Bradford  taking  his  place  as  one  of  the  Assistants. 

1  Plymouth  Colony  Records,  I,  5. 
29* 


342  msTORY  OF  new  England.  [Book  i. 

Their  number  was  at  the  same  time  raised  from  five  to 
seven,  and  so  remained  during  the  separate  existence  of  the 
Colony.  At  the  end  of  Winslow's  year  of  service  as  chief 
magistrate,  Thomas  Prince  was  made  Governor.  Perhaps 
"Winslow  pleaded  the  privilege  of  exemption  allowed  to  him 
by  the  recent  statute ;  perhaps  the  visit  to  England,  which, 
in  the  public  service,  he  made  in  the  following  year,  w'as 
already  contemplated.  It  had  been  "  by  full  consent  agreed 
1G33.      upon  and  enacted,  that  the  chief  government  be 

Oct.  28.  |.-gj  ^Q  ^j^g  town  of  Plymouth,  and  that  the  Gover- 
nor for  the  time  being  be  tied  there  to  keep  his  residence 
and  dwelling,  and  there  also  to  hold  such  courts  as  concern 
the  whole."  ^  The  elections  were  made,  as  they  had  been 
heretofore,  in  the  first  week  of  January ;  but  at  the  elec- 

1C34.      tion  of  Prince  it  was  ordered,  that  "  the  Governor 

•'^"•^"  and  other  officers  .  .  .  should  not  enter  upon 
their  offices  till  the  twenty-seventh  of  March,"  and  that 
the  political  year  thenceforward  should  begin  on  that  day.- 

There  is  no  original  public  register  of  Plymouth  Colony 
of  an  earlier  date  than  its  seventh  year,  at  which  time 
Governor  Bradford  made  a  record  of  some  of  the  princi- 
pal transactions.  The  minutes  of  the  Court  at  which 
Winslow  was  first  made  Governor  begin  a  journal  which, 
under  the  name  of  Court  Orders,  exhibits  thenceforward 
the  miscellaneous  proceedings  both  of  the  General  Courts, 
consisting  of  the  body  of  freemen,  and  of  the  Courts  of  As- 
sistants, in  the  threefold  character  corresponding  to  their 
legislative,  judicial,  and  executive  functions.  The  General 
Courts  conferred  the  franchise,  and  appointed  not  only 
the  magistrates,  but  also  inferior  officers,  such  as  consta- 
bles and  assessors ;  but,  with  these  exceptions,  the  courts 
of  both  kinds  appear  to  have  exercised  generally  the  same 

^  It  was  at  this  time  that  so  mucli  that  the  next  choice  of  Governor  would 

fear   was   entertained   of  a   dispersion  fall  on  Prince,  since  in  fact  he  subse- 

from    riyrnouth    (see    above,    p.  33G).  quisntly     removed    to    Duxbury,     and 

There  may  have  been  a  sjiecial  reason  afterwards  to  Eastham. 

for  the  law,  if  it  was  already  expected  2  pi^m.  Col.  llec  ,  I.  21. 


Chap.  IX.]  PLYMOUTH.  34:3 

powers,  according  as  a  meeting  of  the  one  or  the  other 
occurred  most  seasonably  in  reference  to  the  business  to 
be  disposed  of.  By  registration  in  their  own  Journal, 
they  recognized  marriages,  and  other  private  contracts,  as 
of  sale,^  hire,  labor,  and  the  like.  With  the  help  of  a 
jury,  they  heard  and  determined  disputes  about  property, 
claims  for  service  and  for  wages,  complaints  of  assault, 
and  all  the  miscellaneous  controversies  which  social  life 
creates.  They  apprenticed  orphans,  and  enforced  the  good 
treatment  of  apprentices  and  other  servants.  They  pun- 
ished slanderers,  runaways,  libertines,  drunkards,  and  dis- 
turbers of  the  peace,  by  fines  and  whipping.  They  as- 
signed lands  for  cultivation  and  for  permanent  possession, 
and  apportioned  from  year  to  year  the  common  meadow 
grounds  for  mowing.  They  superintended  the  probate  of 
wills  and  administration  on  estates.  They  took  order  for 
the  building  and  maintenance  of  fences  and  highways. 
They  regulated  commerce  by  restrictions  upon  the  export 
of  necessary  articles.  They  made  rules  for  the  alewife 
and  herring  fishery,  and  for  hunting  and  fowling.  They 
prescribed  bounties  for  the  destruction  of  hurtful  animals, 
and  defined  damages  for  trespasses  by  cattle,  and  for  in- 
jury by  fires.  They  provided  for  the  sealing  of  the  meas- 
ures used  in  trade.  They  established  the  pay  of  jurors, 
and  restricted  entertainment  in  public  houses.  And  they 
gave  diligent  heed  to  arrangements  for  the  military  de- 
fence of  the  Colony.^ 


1  One  of  the  minutes  is  curious,  as  2  "  Whereas  our  ancient  work  of  for- 
indicatiiig  the  value  of  real  estate  at  tification  by  continuance  of  time  is  de- 
Plymouth  in  the  second  decade  :  "1G33,  cayed,  and  Christian  wisdom  teacheth 
Oct.  7.  Richard  Higgins  hath  bought  us  to  depend  upon  God  in  the  use  of 
of  Thomas  Litde 'lis  now  [present]  dwell-  all  good  means  for  our  safety,  it  is  fur- 
ing-house  and  misted  [homestead  ?],  for  ther  agreed  by  the  Court  aforesaid,  that 
and  in  consideration  of  twenty-one  a  work  of  fortification  be  made  ....  by 
bushels  of  merchantable  corn,  whereof  the  whole  strength  of  men  able  to  labor 
twelve  bushels  to  be  paid  in  hand,  and  in  the  Colony."  (Plym.  Col.  Rec,  I.  6.) 
the  remainder  at  harvest  next  ensuing."  At  the  same  Court  (January  1,  1633), 
(Plym.  Col.  Ilec,  I.  16  ;  comp.  33.)  it  was  "  further  ordered,  that  every  free^ 


344  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAKD.  [Book  I. 

At  the  lime  of  Prince's  accession,  a  colonial  tax  of 
fifty-eight  pounds  and  seventeen  shillings  was  assessed  on 
Taxational  sovcnty-seven  men  and  four  women.^  This  fact 
Plymouth.  ^y-^Yi  not  warrant  any  precise  inference  respecting 
the  amount  of  the  adult  male  population,  inasmuch  as 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  there  were  servants  and  others 
who  were  exempt,  and,  indeed,  names  of  men  occur  in  the 
Court-Orders  which  do  not  appear  on  the  tax-list.  The 
list  of  the  next  preceding  year,  the  earliest  which  is  ex- 
tant, contains  the  names  of  eighty-six  men  and  three 
women.^  When  the  Court- Orders  registry  was 
begun,  the  freemen  were  sixty-eight  in  number.^ 

While  Plymouth  was  advancing  in  its  slow  and  quiet 
growth,  the  younger  but  more  robust  Massachusetts  set- 
tlement was  engaged  with  high  questions  of  policy.  The 
charter  of  the  Massachusetts  Company  had  prescribed  no 
condition  of  investment  with  its  franchise,  —  or  with  what 
under  the  circumstances  which  had  arisen  was  the  same 
thing,  the  prerogatives  of  citizenship  in  the  plantation,  — 
except  the  will  and  vote  of  those  who  were  already  free- 

1C31       men.     At  the  first  Cisatlantic  General  Court  for 

May  18.     elcctiou,  "  to  the  end  the  body  of  the  commons 

man  or  other  inhabitant  of  this  Colony  Bradford,    Brewster,    and    five   others 

provide   for   himself,   and   each  under  whose   names  are   not   historical,  paid 

him  able  to  bear  arms,  a  sufficient  mus-  each  £1.7;  and  Ilowland,  Alden,  and 

ket  and  other  serviceable  piece  for  war,  Jonathan  Brewster,  each  £1.4.     It  is 

with  bandeleroes,  and   other  appurte-  matter  of  some  surprise  to  see  Standish 

nance,  with  what  speed  may  be;  and  rated  in  both  years  at  only  £0.  18. 

that,  for  each  able  person  aforesaid,  he  But  perhaps  this  was  in  consideration 

be  at  all  times furnished  with  two  of  his  public  services.     Collier,  one  of 

pounds  of  powder,  and  ten  pounds  of  the  two  on  whom  the  largest  assessment 
bullet."  was  made,  had  lately  arrived,  and  had 
1  Plym.  Col.  Rcc,  I.  27-29.  —  The  been  admitted  to  the  franchise  in  the 
lowest  rate,  nine  shillings,  was  that  of  preceding  January.  He  had  been  one 
forty-five  persons,  including  the  four  of  the  London  Adventurers.  (Brad- 
women,  who  were  all  widows.  The  largest  ford,  201,  213.)  lie  had  now  come 
sum  (£  2.  5)  was  assessed  on  p]dward  over  to  reside,  and  was  henceforward 
Winslow  and  on  William  Collier ;  the  one  of  the  most  important  men  in  the 
ne.xt  largest  (£  1 . 1 G),  on  Isaac  Allerton,  Colony. 

who,  the  year  before,  had  been  assessed         ^  Plym.  Col.  Rec,  I.  9-11. 
£3.11.    Stephen  Hopkins  paid  £  1 .  10.         3  Jbid.,  3,  4. 


Chap.  IX.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  345 

may  be  preserved  of  honest  and  good  men,"  it  was  "  or- 
dered and  agreed,  that,  for  the  time  to  come,  no  „  ,.  . 

O  '  '  '  Religious 

man   shall   be   admitted   to   the  freedom  of  this  test  for  the 

franchise. 

body  politic,  but  such  as  are  members  of  some 
of  the  churches  within  the  limits  of  the  same."  ^ 

The  men  who  laid  this  singular  foundation  for  the 
commonwealth  which  they  were  instituting,  had  been 
accustomed  to  feel  responsibility,  and  to  act  upon  well- 
considered  reasons.  By  charter  from  the  English  crown, 
the  land  was  theirs  as  against  all  other  civilized  people, 
and  they  had  a  right  to  choose  according  to  their  own  rules 
the  associates  who  should  help  them  to  occupy  and  govern 
it.  Exercising  this  right,  they  determined  that  magistracy 
and  citizenship  should  belong  only  to  Christian  men,  as- 
certained to  be  such  by  the  best  test  which  they  knew 
how  to  apply.  They  established  a  kind  of  aristocracy 
hitherto  unknown.  Not  birth,  nor  wealth,  nor  learning, 
nor  skill  in  war,  was  to  confer  political  power ;  but  per- 
sonal character, —  goodness  of  the  highest  type,  —  good- 
ness of  that  purity  and  force  which  only  the  faith  of 
Jesus  Christ  is  competent  to  create. 

The  conception,  if  a  delusive  and  impracticable,  was  a 
noble  one.  Nothing  better  can  be  imagined  for  the  wel- 
fare of  a  country  than  that  it  shall  be  ruled  on  Christian 
principles ;  in  other  words,  that  its  rulers  shall  be  Chris- 
tian men,  —  men  of  disinterestedness  and  integrity  of  the 
choicest  quality  that  the  world  knows,  —  men  whose  fear 
of  God  exalts  them  above  every  other  fear,  and  whose  con- 
trolling love  of  God  and  of  man  consecrates  them  to  the 
most   generous  aims."     The  conclusive  objection  to   the 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  87.  same.     Their   liberties,   among  others, 

2  "  None  are  so  fit  to  be  trusted  with  are  chiefly  these  :  —  1 .  To  choose  all 
the  liberties  of  the  commonwealth  as  magistrates,  and  to  call  them  to  account 
church-members;  for  the  liberties  of  at  the.  General  Courts;  2.  To  choose 
the  freemen  of  this  commonwealth  are  such  burgesses,  every  General  Court, 
such  as  require  men  of  faithful  integrity  as,  with  the  magistrates,  shall  make  or 
to  God  and  the  state,  to  preserve  the  repeal  all  laws.      Now  both  these  liber- 


346  HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

scheme  is  one  which  experience  had  not  yet  revealed,  for 
the  experiment  was  now  first  made.  ( It  is,  that  the  scheme 
is  incapable  of  being  carried  out,  because  there  are  no 
tests  of  religious  sincerity  which  will  guard  the  weak 
judgment  of  man  against  erroi;.  /  AVhen  power  is  appro- 
priated to  the  religious  character,  the  external  signs  of 
the  religious  character  will  be  aftected  by  the  insincere 
and  undeserving.  Hypocrisy  will  manage  to  pass  the 
barrier  designed  to  turn  back  all  but  eminent  virtue.  A 
test  of  this  nature  may  exclude  scandalous  vices,  but  cer- 
tainly not  the  common  workings  of  selfishness  and  passion. 
A  trial  will  be  sure  to  prove  that  such  a  project  is  but  a 
generous  dream.  A  government  so  constituted  will  not 
fail,  before  long,  to  show  itself  subject  to  the  operation  of 
the  same  disturbing  causes  as  afi"ect  other  forms  of  polity, 
through  the  frailty  of  those  by  whom  they  arc  adminis- 
tered. 

Regarded  in  another  point  of  view,  the  plan  was  at 
once  less  novel  and  more  feasible.  It  has  been  no  unusual 
thing  for  communities  to  regard  the  common  welfare  as 
requiring  the  exclusion  from  political  trusts  of  persons 
professing  spiritual  subjection  to  a  foreign  power.  It  is 
only  within  a  few  years  that  the  old  realm  of  England  has 
felt  strong  enough  to  dispense  with  this  security ;  and  a 
numerous  party  has  lately  arisen  in  America  to  insist  that 
its  institution  is  needful  for  the  maintenance  of  freedom  on 
this  continent.  O^hen  the  fathers  of  Massachusetts  estab- 
lished their  religious  test  of  citizenship^  it  was  matter  of 
fearful  uncertainty  what  the  faith  and  ritual  of  the  Church 
of  England  would  turn  out  to  be.  It  was  too  painfully 
certain  what  had  been  the  Church's  treatment  of  themselves, 
and  how  hardly,  without  any  further  backsliding  of  its 
own,  it  Mas  prepared  to  treat  them  again,  should  it  come 

ties  are  eudi  as  carry  along  niiicli  pow-  "  Answer  to  Lord  Say  and  Sele,  Lord 
cr  with  tlicm,  citlicr  to  est;il)li.sli  or  sub-  Unjoki",  and  other  PcM-sons  of  (Quality/ 
vert  the  commonwealth."  (John  Cotton,     iu  Hutchinson,  L  430.) 


Chap.  IX.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  347 

into  power  on  their  own  soil.  They  were  in  error  in  sup- 
posing that,  by  the  apphcation  of  a  religious  test,  they 
could  exclude  all  but  good  men  from  their  counsels.  They 
were  not  so  far  from  the  truth,  when  they  expected,  by  the 
application  of  such  a  test,  to  shut  out  from  their  counsels 
the  emissaries  of  Wentworth  and  Laud  ;  and,  in  their  early 
weakness,  nothing  was  more  indispensable  than  this  for 
their  protection.  They  had  lately  set  up  a  religious  pol- 
ity. The  hopes  and  aims  with  which  they  had  established 
it  were  of  vital  consequence  to  them.  They  knew  that  they 
could  not  maintain  it,  and  the  momentous  interests,  civil 
and  religious,  with  Avhich  it  seemed  to  them  connected, 
should  the  council-chambers  of  their  infant  community 
admit  the  creatures  of  the  English  court  and  church. 

The  special  circumstances  of  the  time  at  which  this 
condition  of  franchise  was  imposed,  were  probably  thought 
to  call  for  a  prompt  decision.  Till  then,  there  had  been 
no  freemen  of  the  Company  except  those  who  had  become 
such  in  England,  and  might  be  supposed  to  be  solicitous 
to  promote  the  generous  objects  of  its  institution.  At 
its  first  Cisatlantic  meeting,  more  than  a  hun-  1530. 
dred  persons  had  presented  themselves  as  candi-  °""  ^^• 
dates  for  admission.  An  irruption  of  strangers  was  im- 
pending, and  it  could  not  fail  to  be  a  subject  of  grave 
anxiety  to  those  now  in  possession  of  the  power,  what 
would  be  the  character  and  purposes  of  associates  who, 
once  received  into  the  Corporation,  would  be  able  to  con- 
trol its  action,  and  to  carry  out  or  defeat  the  designs  for 
which  it  had  been  formed,  and  had  been  conducted  hith- 
erto at  great  cost  and  sacrifice.  The  social  elements  al- 
ready collected  on  the  spot  were  very  diverse.  What 
method  should  dispose  them  for  harmonious  and  be- 
neficent action  ?  --<Among  those  to  be  now  received  were 
not  a  few  "  old  planters,"  doubtfully  sympathizing  in  the 
views  of  the  more  public-spirited  new-comers,  and  not 
improbably  cherishing  the  recent  grudge,  and  so  prepared 


348  IITSTOUY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

for  faction.  Oldham's  disturbing  practices  at  Plymouth 
could  not  have  been  unknown,  and  he  had  just  been  dis- 
puting the  title  of  the  Company  to  its  lands.  Men  of 
condition,  like  Blaxton,  Maverick,  Jeffries,  and  Burslem, 
had  a  similar  adverse  interest.  Edward  Gibbons,  lately 
parted  from  the  irregular  adventurers  at  Blount  WoUas- 
tou,  Mas  as  yet  a  suspicious  friend.  Others,  like  Coles 
and  Wignall,  who  soon  afterwards  gave  trouble,^  may 
have  been  already  regarded  with  distrust.  How  many  like 
Morton  of  Merry-Mount  there  might  prove  to  be  among 
the  yet  untried  multitude,  or  of  the  class  of  the  Brownes 
and  others  who  in  the  last  two  years  had  tasked  the  pru- 
dence and  vigor  of  Endicott,  it  was  still  for  time  to  dis- 
close ;  and  it  was  the  office  of  a  wise  forethought,  to 
provide  some  security  against  damage  from  them  to  the 
public  weal.  From  such  as,  on  due  advisement,  should 
be  admitted  into  covenant  with  the  church,  some  security 
would  be  obtained.  Sincere  professors  would  be  earnest 
fellow-workers  in  the  great  enterprise;  insincere  profes- 
sors, if  there  were  such,  would  be  hampered  and  re- 
strained. 

A  hundred  and  eighteen  persons  took  the  freeman's 
oath,   and   were   admitted   to   the   franchise.-      Winthrop 

1C31.  ^^'^^  re-elected  Governor,  "  by  the  general  consent 
wimhmjf'  of  the  Court,  within  the  meaning  of  the  patent,"^ 
and  Dudley  Dudlcy  bciug  again  associated  with  him  in  the 
second   office. 

1  Mas-s.  Col.  Pvc-o.,  I.  90,  91,9.1,  107.     OUiors  did  so  subsequently.      It  must 

2  It  would  be  interesting  to  ascertain     be  remembered  that  the  rule  of  May 
what  proportion  of  these  new  freemen     18,  1C31,  was  prospective. 

were  cliurch-members,  but  the  imper-  3  This   language  is  ambiguous.      It 

fection   of   the    early   records   of   the  may  be  interpreted  to  mean  that  the 

churches  prevents  a  precise  answer  to  vote  passed  in  October  for  the  choice 

this  question.     An  examination  of  the  of  the  Governor  by  the  Assistants  had, 

list  of  tlie  freemen  admitted  at  this  time  on  roHection,  not  met  with  aj)proval, 

leads   to  the   conclusion,  that  perhaps  and  that,  notwithstanding  that  Aote,  the 

three   quarters   of   them,   certainly    as  method  prescribed  by  the  charter,  of  a 

many  na  one  half,  had  previously  con-  choice  by   the   freemen,   was   now  fol- 

ncctcd  themselves  with  some   church,  lowed.     But  I  think  the  words  "  within 


Chap.  IX]  MASSACHUSETTS.  349 

Down  to  this  time,  and  a  little  longer,  while  the  free- 
men were  without  much  mutual  acquaintance,  and  so 
without  preparation  either  for  administration  of  the  gov- 
ernment or  for  combined  resistance  to  encroachment  on 
their  charter  rights,  the  Assistants  appear  to  have  been 
consolidating  power  in  their  own  hands.     As  at 

^  Permanency 

the  first  General  Court  it  had  been  determined  to  <'fiiio(ffire 
transfer  the  power  of  choosing  the  Governor  and 
Deputy-Governor  from  the  freemen  to  the  Assistants,  at 
the  second  it  was  determined,  "with  full  consent  of  all 
the  commons  then  present,  that  once  in  every  year,  at 
least,  a  General  Court  shall  be  holden,  at  which  Court  it 
shall  be  lawful  for  the  commons  to  propound  any  person 
or  persons  whom  they  shall  desire  to  be  chosen  Assistants  ; 
and,  if  it  be  doubtful  whether  it  be  the  greater  part  of  the 
commons  or  not,  it  shall  be  put  to  the  poll ;  the  like 
course  to  be  holden  when  the  said  commons  shall  see 
cause,  for  any  defect  or  misbehavior,  to  remove  any  one 
or  more  of  the  Assistants."^  In  the  form  of  a  grant  of 
privileges  to  the  freemen,  this  was  clearly  a  substitution 
of  the  invidious  and  difficult  process  of  removal  for  the 
irresponsible  freedom  of  that  annual  election  de  novo 
which  was  contemplated  by  the  charter.  And,  accord- 
ingly, there  is  no  record  of  an  election  of  Assistants  this 
year.  Without  doubt,  as  many  of  the  old  Assistants  as 
remained  in  the  country  retained  their  office ;  and  so  far 
a  precedent  w^as  created  for  their  permanent  continuance 
in  power. 

The  plan  of  establishing  the  capital  at  Xcwtown  was 
relinquished.  The  site  had  been  laid  out,  with  lines  for 
a  fortification,  and  streets  at  right  angles;    the  Difference 

...,        IT-  M^     •  between 

Deputy-Governor   had    established   him  self   m  a  wmthrop 
newly-built  house ;  and  the  Governor  had  set  up  '""'  ""'"^^' 

the  meaning  0^  i\iQ  patent"  rather  de-  instrument,   thoi:gh   not    to   its   letter, 

note  that  the  election  was  now  made  The  early  formal  repeal  of  the  rule  of 

in  the  manner  lately  decided  on,  which  election  of  October,  1630,  will  be  men- 

the  Court  and  its  Secretary  considered  tioned  in  its  place  (below,  p.  354). 

to  be  agreeable   to  the  spirit  of  that  ^  Mass.  Col.  Kec,  I.  87. 
VOL.  I.                                30 


350  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

the  frame  of  one ;  when  the  tranquil  aspect  of  relations  with 
the  natives  seemed  to  render  a  concentration  of  the  Colony 
less  important,  the  superior  advantages  of  the  neighboring 
peninsula  for  residence  and  commerce  had  made  themselves 
apparent,  and  Winthrop  at  last  resolved  to  yield  to  the 
importunity  of  his  neighbors,  who  urged  him  to  remain 
in  Boston.  Dudley  conceived  a  displeasure,  which  the 
Governor  was  not  immediately  able  to  pacify  by  the  most 
friendly  overtures. 

(^In  another  quarter,  an  ecclesiastical  question  threatened 
discord.  It  was  reported  that  Phillips  and  Brown,  the 
Religious  pastor  and  the  elder  of  Watertown,  had  spoken 
vvTtenown.  of  "  tlio  churches  of  Rome  "  as  "  true  churches." 
July  21.  Winthrop,  Dudley,  and  Xowell  visited  the  place 
to  make  inquiry.  "  The  doctrine  was  debated  before  a 
number  of  members  of  the  Boston  and  Watertown  congre- 
gations, and,  against  a  minority  of  only  three,  was  voted  to 
be  an  error/'    But  the  matter  was  not  put  at  rest  till  after 

a  second  visit  of  the  same  dimitaries.     Brown 

Dec.  8.  .        .  ^     .     ,  .    ,  .     , 

appears  to  have  been  pertmacious  m  his  heretical 

laxity.  The  final  issue  was,  that,  "  after  much  debate,  at 
length  they  were  reconciled,  and  agreed  to  seek  God  in  a 
day  of  humiliation,  and  so  to  have  a  solemn  uniting,  each 
party  promising  to  reform  what  had  been  amiss ;  and  the 
pastor  gave  thanks  to  God,  and  the  assembly  t)rake  vqD."/ 
It  may  be  presumed  that  the  importance  attached  to  this 
matter  was  incident  to  the  political  relations  which  were 
understood  to  be  involved.  If  church-members,  who  were 
rulers  in  Massachusetts,  should  esteem  the  church  of 
Home  a  true  church,  where  would  be  the  safety  of  Massa- 
chusetts should  England  become  Catholic  ]  Thus  out  of 
political  exigencies  a  union  of  church  and  state  in  Massa- 
chusetts was  already  dawning. 

A  movement  of  the  Tarratine  Indians  occasioned  a  mo- 
mentary uneasiness.  A  hundred  of  these  people 
came  up  the  Merrimack  in  canoes  by  night,  and, 

1  Winthrop,  I.  58,  07. 


Chap.  IX.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  351 

killing  several  of  the  friendly  natives,  stole  down  as  far 
as  Saugus,  whence  they  retraced  their  steps,  terrified  by 
a  discharge  of  the  English  alarm-guns.^  This  was  the  first 
disturbance  from  the  natives  in  the  new  Colony. 

At  the  same  time  with  those  measures  of  permanent 
administration  which  have  been  mentioned,  minute  regula- 
tions of  police  engaged  the  attention  of  the  great  council 
of  freemen.  A  ferry  was  established  between  Winnisim- 
met  and  Charlestown.  A  uniform  standard  w^as  appointed 
for  weights  and  measures.  A  prohibition  was  issued 
against  the  unlicensed  killing  of  "  wild  swine."  Fines 
were  imposed  on  individuals  for  refusing  or  neglecting 
"  to  watch,"  and  memoranda  of  private  agreements  were 
placed  upon  record.^  As  the  social  system  proceeded  to 
take  form,  the  business  conducted  by  the  Assist-    j^„^  14. 

ants  of  course  extended  more  into  detail.    The  hire  f'""'ie'- pro- 
ceedings of 

of  servants  by  any  other  than  "  a  settled  house-  '^e  Assist- 

''  •'  ants. 

keeper,"  was  ordered  to  be  for  not  less  time  than 
a  year.  No  person  was  to  leave  the  jurisdiction,  by  sea 
or  land,  or  to  buy  provisions  from  any  vessel,  without  per- 
mission from  some  magistrate.  Philip  Ratclifie  was  sen- 
tenced to  "  be  whipped,  have  his  ears  cut  off",  fined  forty 
shillings,  and  banished  out  of  the  limits  of  the  jurisdic- 
tion, for  uttering  malicious  and  scandalous  speeches 
against  the  government  and  the  church  of  Salem," 
Chickatabot,  the  Neponset  sachem,  was  "  fined  a  skin  of 
beaver  for  shooting  a  swine  of  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall's."  ^ 
An  assessment  of  thirty  pounds  was  levied  on  ten 

•^  .  July  5. 

plantations,  for  "  the  making  of  the  creek  at  the 

NeAV  Town  twelve  foot  broad  and  seven  foot  deep."     All 

1  Winthrop,  59.  —  Hubbard,  Chap,  liim  "indemnity  for  the  past  and  secu- 
XXV.  — Johnson,  Wonder- Working  rity  for  the  future,"  was  milder  than  the 
Providence,  Chap.  XXV.  last  resort  of  kings,  and  more  advanta- 

2  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  I.  87.  geous  to  both  parties;  and  its  principle 

3  Chickatabot  was  no  subject  of  the  was  the  same  as  that  of  contrihutions 
Enijlish.  But  the  course,  which  on  a  levied  upon  foreign  aggressors,  or  the 
small  scale  they  took,  to  obtain   from  issue  o?  letters  of  reprisal. 


352  HISTORY  or  new  England.  [Book  i. 

islands  within  the  patent  were  to  be  held  in  trust  by  the 
magistrates,  to  provide  a  revenue  for  public  uses.  Assist- 
ants were  empowered  "  to  grant  warrants,  summons,  and 
attachments,  as  occasion  should  require."  The  sagamore 
of  Agawam  was  "  banished  from  coming  into  any  English 
house  for  the  space  of  a  year,  under  the  penalty  of  ten  skins 
of  beaver."     The  time  for  burning  over  "  ground 

July  2G.  . 

for  corn  "  was  prescribed.  Charlestown  and  liox- 
bury  were  required  to  furnish  part  of  the  night-watch  of 
Boston.  A  day  in  every  month  was  appointed  for  "  a 
general  training  of  Captain  Underhill's  company  at  Bos- 
ton and  Roxbury,"  and  another  for  "  the  training  of  them 
who  inhabit  at  Charlestown,  Mystic,  and  the  New  Town, 
the  training  to  begin  at  one  of  the  clock  of  the 

afternoon."     Offenders  were  fined   "  for  abusing 

Aug.  Ifi.  ...  , 

themselves  disorderly  with  drinking  too  much 
strong  drink."     Henry  Lyon  was  "  whipped  and  banished 

the  plantation,  for  writing  into  England  falsely 

and  maliciously  against  the  government  and  exe- 
cution of  justice  here,"  and  John  Dawe  was  "severely 
whipped"  for  tempting  the  chastity  of  an  Indian  woman. 

Josias  Plastowe,    "  for   stealinc:   four  baskets  of 

Sept.  27.  ^ 

corn  from  the  Indians,"  was  ordered  to  make 
twofold  restitution,  to  pay  a  fine  of  "  five  pounds,  and 
hereafter  to  be  called  by  the  name  of  Josias,  and  not  Jij*., 
as  formerly  he   used  to  be."     The  price  of  boards  was 

fixed.       Adultery    was    made    punishable    with 

Oct.  18.  •'  .1111 

death.  Corn  was  constituted  a  legal  tender  at 
the  market  price,  "  except  money  or  beaver  be  expressly 
named."  It  was  ordered,  "  that  no  planter,  within  the 
limits  of  this  jurisdiction,  returning  for  England, 
shall  tarry  either  money  or  beaver  with  him, 
without  leave  from  the  Governor,  under  pain  of  forfeiting" 
the  property  ;  that  Courts  of  Assistants  "  shall  be  held 
every  first  Tuesday  in  every  month,"  instead  of  once  in 
three  weeks,  as  heretofore ;  and  that,  "  if  any  single  per- 


ic3a 

March  C. 


Chap.  IX.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  353 

son  be  not  provided  of  sufficient  arms  allowable  by  the 

captain  or  lieutenants, he  shall  be  compelled  to 

serve  by  the  year  w^ith  any  master  that  will  retain  hini, 
for  such  wages  as  the  Court  shall  think  meet  to  appoint." 
"Thomas    Knower   was    set   in   the   bilboes    for 

April  3. 

threatening  the  Court  that,  if  he  should  be  pun- 
ished, he  would  have  it   tried   in  England   whether   he 
was  lawfully  punished  or  not."  ^     So  minute  and  so  multi- 
farious were  the  cares  of  the  primeval  magistrates  of  Mas- 
sachusetts Bay. 

The  plan  of  fortifying  Newtown  had  not  been  aban- 
doned when   it  ceased   to  be   thought  of  as  the   capital 
town;   and  a  tax  of  sixty  pounds  to  defray  the 
expense  was  levied  on  twelve  jDlantations.      On  -rl^ftM^..^ 
the  reception  at  Watertown  of  the  warrant  for  t-i^eJ ''y  the 

.  Assistants. 

payment  of  the  proportion  of  this  tax  due  from 

that  town,  "  the  pastor  and  elder,  &c.  assembled  Discontent  at 

...  .  Watertown. 

the  people,  and  delivered  their  opinion  that  it  was 
not  safe  to  pay  moneys  after  that  sort,  for  fear  of  bringing 
themselves  and  posterity  into  bondage."  It  was  the  Eng- 
lish jealousy  of  taxation  imagined  to  be  illegal.  Water- 
town  had  paid  its  proportion  of  two  general  taxes  before ; 
but  one  had  been  for  the  stipend  of  the  two  captains 
charged  with  the  common  defence,  the  other  for  the  sup- 
port of  two  ministers,  of  whom  Watertown  had  one,"  while 
the  present  appropriation  might  be  alleged  to  be  for  a 
local  object,  in  which  that  town  was  but  little  interested. 
The  malecontents,  summoned  to  Boston,  were  in- 
formed by  Winthrop  that  "  this  government  was 
in  the  nature  of  a  Parliament,  and  that  no  Assistant  could 
be  chosen  but  by  the  freemen,  who  had  power  likewise  to 
remove  the  Assistants,  and  put  in  others " ;  whereupon 
they  were  "  fully  satisfied,"  and  "  their  oifence  was  par- 
doned, a  recantation  and  submission  under  their  hands  " 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  88-95.  2  ibid.,  77,  82. 

30* 


354  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

having  been  first  made,  which  they  "  were  enjoined  to 
read  in  the  assembly  the  next  Lord's  day."  ^ 

At  the  next  General  Court,  the  freemen  resumed  the 
right  of  making  a  direct  election  of  their  two  highest 

j^jaj.  9     magistrates.     "  It  was  generally  agreed  upon,  by 

The  freemen  ei-gptiou  of  liands,  that  the  Governor,  Deputy- 
resume  the  '  1.      J 

right  of  eiec-  Govomor,  and  Assistants  should  be  chosen  by 
a|ip<!int  Dep-  the  wholo  Court  of  Governor,  Deputy-Governor, 
Assistants,  and  freemen,"  though  the  freemen  ac- 
quiesced in  a  limitation  of  the  power  which  they  pos- 
sessed by  their  charter,  when  they  added  a  provision 
"  that  the  Governor  shall  always  be  chosen  out  of  the 
Assistants,"  which  can  only  be  understood  as  relating  to 
the  Assistants  of  the  next  preceding  year.  At  the  same 
time,  they  took  the  further  important  step  of  ordering 
the  choice  of  "  two  of  every  plantation  to  confer  with 
the  Court  about  raising  a  public  stock,"  a  measure  which 
proved  to  be  the  germ  of  a  second  house  of  legislature. 
Neither  of  these  movements  appears  to  have  been  opposed 
by  the  Magistrates,  though  the  former,  at  least,  did  not 
take  them  by  surprise ;  -  and  for  the  latter,  it  would  seem, 
they  must  have  been  equally  j^repared,  for  the  charter 
gave  no  power  to  the  Assistants  to  assess  even  the  free- 
men, still  less  to  lay  taxes  on  others  living  on  the  Com- 
pany's lands.^  The  recent  opposition  at  Watertown  had 
been  lawful  and  reasonable,  and,  however  apparently 
checked,  may  be  presumed  to  have  been  neither  subdued 
in  that  spot,  nor  confined  to  it.  The  list  of  sixteen  dep- 
uties from  the  eight  towns,  "  to  advise  about  the  raising  of 

1  Winthrop,  I.  70.  of  the  As?istants,  but  lio  continued  stiff 

2  Winthrop  told  them,  a  week  before,  in  his  opinion,  and  protested  he  would 
that  he  had  heard  of  the  freemen's  in-  then  return  back  into  England."  (Win- 
tention  to  repeal  the  rule  made  at  the  first  throp,  I.  74  ) 

General  Court  (see  above,  p.  322),  at  3  The  Assistants,  at  their  next  Court, 

which  "Mr.  Ludlow  grew  into  passion,  laid  a  duty  of  a  shilling  on  every  pound 

and   said    that   then    we   should   have  of  beaver  bought  of  an  Indian,  "to- 

no  government."     The  proceeding  was  Avards  the  defraying  of  public  charges." 

"cleared  in  the  judgment  of  the  rest  (Mass.  Col.  Rec,  L  5)G.) 


Chap.  IX.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  355 

a  common  stock,"  is  suggestive.  It  appears  to  comprise 
the  elements  of  a  party  of  opposition  to  the  Magistrates. 
Oldham,  from  Watertown,  was  an  active  and  able  man, 
disaffected  towards  the  existing  state  of  things.  His  col- 
league, Masters,  had  been  conspicuous  in  the  late  move- 
ment in  Mr.  Phillips's  church,  and  was  still  contumacious.^ 
Edward  Gibbons,  of  Charlestown,  had  been  of  the  company 
at  Merry-Mount.  Conant  and  Palfrey,  of  Salem,  were  of 
the  "old  planters"  there,  over  whom  the  charter  officers 
had  assumed  control.  Robert  Coles,  of  Roxbury,  unless 
there  were  two  of  the  same  name,  was  a  person  con- 
stantly coming  under  the  censure  of  the  Magistrates. 

It  was  from  no  discontent  with  their  rulers,  but  from 
just  sensibility  as  to  their  charter  rights,  that  the  freemen 
had  vindicated  their  own  prerogative  of  election.  Their 
vote  placed  Winthrop  and  Dudley  again  in  the  highest 
offices,  and  re-elected  the  Assistants,  adding  to  them  John 
Humphrey  and  William  Coddington,^  their  ancient  asso- 
ciates, who  were  expected  from  England,  and  John  Win- 
throp, the  Governor's  son,  who  had  lately  arrived.  "  The 
Governor,  among  other  things,  used  this  speech  to  winthrop 
the  people,  after  he  had  taken  his  oath :  '  That  he  ll"ewe '° 
had  received  gratuities  from  divers  towns,  which  p"^^^^"'^- 
he  received  with  much  comfort  and  content ;  he  had  also 
received  many  kindnesses  from  particular  persons,  which 
he  would  not  refuse,  lest  he  should  be  accounted  uncour- 
teous,  &c. ;  but  he  professed  that  he  received  them  with 
a  trembling  heart,  in  regard  of  God's  rule,  and  the  con- 
sciousness of  his  own  infirmity,  and  therefore  desired 
them  that  hereafter  they  would  not  take  it  ill,  if  he  did 
refuse  presents  from  particular  persons,  except  they  were 
from  the  Assistants,  or  from  some  special  friends.'     To 

1  Winthrop,  I.  81.  person  of  that  name  who  had  been  so 

2  Coddington  had  gone  to  England  active  in  the  business  of  the  Colony 
a  year  before.  (See  above,  p.  328.)  from  the  first.  (See  above,  pp.  287, 
John  Humphrey  was  the  distinguished  302,  317.) 


356  HISTORY   OF  KEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  L 

"which  no  answer  was  made ;  but  he  was  told  after,  that 
many  good  people  were  much  grieved  at  it,  for  that  he 
never  had  any  allowance  towards  the  charge  of  his  place." 
It  was  a  natural  and  amiable  feeling  on  the  part  of  the 
"  good  people."  But  Winthrop's  thorough  uprightness 
made  him  incapable  of  being  cheated  by  any  such  fallacy. 
Even  without  the  fate  of  the  Great  Chancellor  fresh  in 
his  memory,  his  was  a  spirit  capable  of  feeling  the  dan- 
ger and  the  ignominy  of  the  reception  of  private  gifts  by 
a  public  servant. 

Dudley  "  accepted  of  his  place  again,  and,  the  Governor 
and  he  being  reconciled  the  day  before,  all  things  were 
carried  very  lovingly  amongst  all."  ^  It  was  not  without  a 
conflict  with  himself  that  Dudley  came  to  this  decision. 
His  disgust  had  been  so  serious,  that,  as  his  second  year  of 
office  was  drawing  to  an  end,  he  had  sent   to 

Aprils.  .  ^  .  . 

the  Assistants  a  letter  of  resignation.  At  a  pri- 
vate meeting  they  refused  to  accept  it,  but  he 
persisted  in  his  purpose  for  the  present."  The 
reader  is  tempted  to  wonder,  that  causes  so  trivial  should 
have  disturbed  a  man  with  cares  and  aims  so  comprehen- 
sive and  generous.  But  such  are  the  inconsistencies  of 
human  nature ;  and  occasions  no  more  dignified  have  in- 
volved passionate  monarchs  in  war,  and  changed  the  his- 
tory of  nations. 

A   fortification   was   erected    in    Boston,    men    of    the 

neighboring  towns  laboring  on  it  in  succession.^     Several 

^^^       vessels   arrived    with   passengers  and    stock,   the 

Arrivals  from  cmiOTation,  tliouffh  not  yet  renewed  with  activity, 

England.  *^  '  ^.  ^  .  t      n 

bcnig  more  considerable  than  in  the  year  before. 
A  day  of  thank sofiving  was  kept  for  their  safe 

June  13.  -^  &  &  1 

passage,  and  for  the  intelligence  which  they 
brought  of  the  prosperity  of  the  Protestant  interest  in 
the  successes  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  against  the  Emperor. 

1  Winthrop,  I.  7G.  3  u  Qn    the    Corn    Hill  "  ;    probably 

2  Ibid.,  72,  73.  that  since  known  as  Fort  Hill. 


Chap.  IX.]  ^lASSACHUSETTS.  357 

Wilson  returned  to  liis  parochial  charge  in  Boston. 
John  Eliot,^  destined  to  win  the  name  oi  Apostle, 
had  arrived  there  in  the  preceding  autumn,  since  which 
time  he  had  supplied  Wilson's  place.     After  an  earnest 
struggle  on  the  part  of  the  Boston  people  to  retain  him 
as  their  teacher,  a  church  was  organized  in  Roxbury  under 
his  ministry  and  that  of  Thomas  Welde,  who  had  come 
a  week  after  AVilson's  return ;  and  the  Deputy-Governor 
removed   from   Newtown   to    place  himself  under   their 
spiritual  charge.     A  company  from  Braintree  in 
England  sat  down  at  Mount  Wollaston,  but  be- 
fore long,  in  conformity  to  an  order  of  the  Magistrates, 
removed  to  Newtown.^ 

Wilson's  return  was  soon  followed  by  a  gratifying  in- 
cident.   By  his  good  offices,  and  those  of  Mr.  Welde,  Mr. 
Nowell,  and  the  Dorchester  ministers,  a  better  un-  September. 
derstanding  was  established  between  the  Governor  Reconciiia- 
and  the  Deputy-Governor.     They  had  continued  wimhrop 
to  meet  each  other,  on  occasions  of  business,  with  ^^'^  ^"'"ey- 
the  usual  reciprocations  of  courtesy,  and  "without  any  ap- 
pearance of  any  breach  or  discontent."     But  Dudley,  who 
had  a  stubborn  temper,  had  been  deeply  offended  by  the 
Governor  s  course  in  relation  to  the  settlement  at  Newtown, 
and  had  hitherto  received  coldly  the  overtures  for  an  ac- 
commodation which  the  generosity  of  the  other  party  perse- 
vered in  making.     A  conference  between  them,  in 
the  presence  of  their  friends  who  have  been  named, 
was  "  begun  with  calling  upon  the  Lord."    Dudley  opened 
his  private  grievances,  and  added  strictures  on  the  public 

1  Eliot  was  now  in  the  twenty-eighth  other  Puritans  at  the  time,  he  arrived 
year  of  his  age.  His  birthplace  is  not  in  Boston,  November  3,  1631.  His 
known.  He  was  graduated  in  1622  election  to  be  teacher  of  its  church  ore- 
as  Bachelor  of  Arts,  at  Jesus  College,  ates  a  presumption  against  the  tradition 
Cambridge,  and  was  afterwards  assist-  that  it  was  in  compliment  to  Cotton, 
ant  to  Thomas  Hooker  (presently  to  be  whom  they  are  said  to  have  been  ex- 
mentioned)  in  a  private  school  near  pecting,  that  the  emigrants  gave  the 
Chelmsfoi'd,  in  Essex.  Leaving  England  name  of  Bostoji  to  their  chief  town, 
from  the  same  motives  which  Impelled         ^  Winthrop,  I.  87. 


358  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

administration;  and  the  Governor  partly  justified  his  con- 
duct, and  partly  "  acknowledged  himself  faulty."  A  dis- 
cussion took  place,  in  which  "  they  both  fell  into  bitter- 
ness"; after  which,  "the  meeting  breaking  up  without  any 
other  conclusion  but  the  commending  the  success  of  it  by 
prayer  to  the  Lord,  the  Governor  brought  the  Deputy 
onward  of  his  way,  and  every  man  went  to  his  own  home." 
The  censure  of  the  arbiters  appears  to  have  been  limited 
to  the  injury  which  Dudley  had  received  from  the  Gov- 
ernor's not  fixing  his  residence  at  the  place  which  had 
been  understood  to  be  agreed  upon.  "  The  ministers 
afterward,  for  an  end  of  the  difi'erence, or- 

Sept.  4.  •  ' 

dered  that  the  Governor  should  procure  them  a 
minister  at  Newtown,  and  contribute  somewhat  towards 
his  maintenance  for  a  time;  or,  if  he  could  not,  by  the 
spring,  effect  that,  then  to  give  the  Deputy,  towards  his 
charges  in  building  there,  twenty  pounds."  Dudley  im- 
mediately returned  the  money,  "  with  this  reason  to  Mr. 
Wilson,  that  he  was  so  well  persuaded  of  the  Governor's 
love  to  him,  and  did  prize  it  so  much,  as,  if  they  had 
given  him  one  hundred  pounds  instead  of  twenty  pounds, 
he  would  not  have  taken  it."  And  the  good  men  "  ever 
after  kept  peace  and  good  correspondency  together,  in 
love  and  friendship,"-^  their  alliance  being  subsequently 
cemented  by  an  intermarriage  of  their  children. 

A  transaction  of  material  interest  to  the  Colony,  as  well 
as  to  Wilson's  religious  charge,  took  place  a  few  months 
_.  . .     ,    after  his  return.     His  church,  originally  formed 

Division  of  '  o  .< 

the  Boston     at  Charlcstowu,  had  soon  transferred  itself  for 

church. 

worship  to  the  opposite  peninsula,  where  the 
greater  part  of  its  members  gradually  settled.  The 
portion  left  behind,  thirty-three  in  number,  finding  the 
passage  over  the  river  inconvenient  in  bad  weather,  and 
having  opportunity  to  secure  the  services  of  a  minister 
of  their  own,  it  was  determined  that  they  should  con- 

1  Wintlirop,  I.  82-80,  88,  89. 


Chap.  IX.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  859 

stitute  a  separate  congregation.     Mr.  James,  recently  ar- 
rived from  England,  was  placed  in  charfje  of  it, 
while  Mr.  Wilson,  who  had  hitherto  been  teacher 
of  the  original  church,  was  now  chosen  to  be  its 

.  Nov.  22. 

pastor,  and  a  meeting-house  was  built  for  him 
at  what  was  thought  a  liberal  expense.^  Following  the 
manner  used  at  Salem  for  the  induction  of  Higginson  and 
Skelton  to  office,  Wilson,  and  Oliver,  his  ruling  elder,  as- 
sisted by  two  deacons,  prayed  for  each  other  mutually 
with  imposition  of  hands. 

Boston  was  taking  the  character  of  the  capital  town. 
It  was  "thought  by  general  consent"  to  be  "the  fittest 
place  for  public  rneetings   of  any  place  in  the  Town  of 
Bay."  ~     Blaxton's  claim  from  pre-occupancy  was  ^''^'™- 
quieted  by  "  fifty  acres  of  ground  set  out  for  him  near  to 
his  house  in  Boston,  to  enjoy  for  ever."^     It  was  "ordered 
that  there  should  be  a  market  kept  at  Boston,  upon  every 
Thursday,  the  fifth  day  of  the  week."  ^     The  Assistants 
directed   the  building  of  a  house  of  correction 
there  for  the  Colony's  use,  and  of  a  dwelling-house 
for  a  beadle.^     Boston  now  contains  a  population  of  a  hun- 
dred and  seventy  thousand  souls.    The  property  of  its  citi- 
zens equals  two  hundred  and  sixty  millions  of  dollars.     Its 
imports  in  a  recent  year  amounted  to  nearly  forty- 
five  millions  of  dollars,  its  exports  to  more  than 
twenty-eight  millions,   and  its  shipping  to  nearly  half  a 
million   of  tons.*^      Its   citizens   tax  themselves   annually 
more  than  two  millions  of  dollars,  of  which  amount  one 

1  It  is  said  to  have  had  mud  walls  3  Ibid.,  104. 
and  a  thatched  roof.  It  stood  on  the  ^  Ibid.,  112. 
south  side  of  State  Street,  probably  at         ^  Ibid.,  100. 

the  easterly  corner  which  it  makes  with  ^  Report   of   the    Secretary   of   the 

Devonshire  Street.     (Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  Treasury  on  the  Commerce  and  Navi- 

IV.  189  )     "  For  which  [the  meeting-  gation  of   the  United    States   for  the 

house]    and   Mr.  Wilson's  house,  they  Year  ending  June  30,   1857,  pp.  324, 

had  made  a  voluntary  contribution  of  868,   486,   620.      The   exact   amounts 

about  one  hundi'ed  and  twenty  pounds."  were    as     follows;    namely,    imports, 

(Winthrop,  I.  87.)  S 44,840,083  ;     exports,    $28,326,918; 

2  Mass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  101.  shipping,  447,996  tons. 


3G0  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

seventh  part  goes  to  the  support  of  public  schools.  A 
partial  collation  of  the  facts  belonging  to  the  subject, 
made  at  the  end  of  the  first  forty-five  years  of  the  present 
century,  exhibits  a  result  of  voluntary  contributions  of 
citizens  of  Boston  within  that  time  to  purposes  of  educa- 
tion and  charity,  and  some  similar  miscellaneous  objects  of 
public  usefulness,  amounting  to  not  less  than  five  millions 
of  dollars.^  Boston,  when  its  first  meeting-house  was 
building,  showed  only  a  few  cabins,  on  the  eastern  decliv- 
ity, and  at  the  foot,  of  a  hill  which  sloped  towards  the  sea. 
At  high  water,  its  primitive  area,  of  about  two  square 
miles,  looked  like  two  islands.  A  drawbridge  was  soon 
thrown  across  the  narrow  channel  which  separated  them, 
and  nature  had  provided  for  their  connection  with  the 
mainland  by  a  narrow  isthmus,  a  mile  in  length.  The 
uneven  surface  was  divided  among  thiiee  hills,  since  known 
by  the  names  of  Beacon  Hill,  Fort  Hill,  and  Copp's  Hill, 
with  their  intervening  valleys.  Beacon  PI  ill  was  a  con- 
spicuous object  from  the  sea  and  the  surrounding  coun 
try,  its  highest  peak  rising  to  an  elevation  of  a  hundred 
and  eighty  feet  above  the  water.^ 

1  American  Almanac,  XVII.  163,  return  shortly."    (Ibkl,  Pref.)     On  the 

2  The  greatest  length  of  the  penin-  opposite  page  is  a  fac-dmile,  on  a  re- 
sula  of  Boston,  from  Eoxbury  line  to  ducedscale,ofa  map  prefixed  to  his  book, 
the  M-ater,  is  a  little  over  two  miles  and  "Boston,"  he  says  (37,  38),  "is 
three  quarters;  its  greatest  width,  a  little  two  miles  northeast  from  Roxberry. 
over  one  mile.  It  contained  about  seven  His  situation  is  very  pleasant,  being 
hundred  acres  o'"  land,  before  it  was  en-  a  peninsula,  hemmed  in  on  the  south 
larged  by  embankments.  The  follow-  side  with  the  bay  of  Boxberry,  on 
ing  description  of  it,  as  it  appeared  in  the  north  side  with  Charly  River,  the 
1G33,  is  from  "New  England's  Pros-  marches  on  the  back  side  being  not 
pect,"  by  William  Wood,  published  at  half  a  quarter  of  a  mile  over;  so  that 
London  in  1G34.  Nothing,  I  believe,  is  a  litUe  fencing  will  secure  their  cattle 
known  of  Wood,  except  that,  in  August,  from  the  wolves.  Their  greatest  wants 
1C33,  (New  England's  Prospfect,  38,;  be  wood  and  meadow-ground,  which 
he  left  this  country,  where,  he  says  in  never  were  in  that  place,  being  con- 
his  Preface,  he  had  "lived  these  four  strained  to  fetch  their  building  tini- 
years."  It  is  probable,  therefore,  that  ber  and  firewood  from  the  islands  in 
lie  came  over  with  Iligginson's  fleet,  boats  and  their  hay  in  lighters.  It  be- 
"  Tiie  end  of  his  travel  Avas  obscrva-  ing  a  neck,  and  bare  of  wood,  they  arc 
tion"  (Ibid.,  47),  and  he  "  intended  to  not  troubled   with  three  great   annoy- 


The  Soutlipartof  NewEn^land  as  it  is 
Planted  this  yeare,l634. 


Chap.  IX.] 


MASSACHUSETTS. 


361 


The  colonists  had  few  natives  in  their  vicinity,  and  they 
had  little  opportunity  to   acquaint   themselves   with   the 
more  formidable  tribes  of  the  interior.     A  Narragansett 
chief,  named  Miantonomo,  destined  afterwards  to  visit  of  a 
act  a  conspicuous  part  in  this  history,  came  to  s^ichem!"'*" 
Boston    with   his    wife    and    several    attendants,   -'^"s-^--'^- 
The    Governor    "  brought    the   sachem    and    the    rest    of 
the  company    to    his    house,    and   made   much   of   them, 
which  he  seemed  to  be  well  pleased  with";  but  he  was 
"  with  some  difficulty  "  induced  to  chastise  three  of  his  fol- 
lowers, Avho  had  broken  into  a  dwelling.^     Nothing  took 
place  to  indicate  the  design  of  his  visit,  but  it  was  thought 
soon  after  that  there  were  symptoms  of  general  disaffec- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  natives.     Those  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  the  settlements  made  quarrels  about  the  Alarm  from 
bounds   of   their  lands,   and   ceased  to  visit  the  '"^  Indians. 
English  houses  as  had  been  their  custom.     The  Narra- 


ances,  of  wolves,  rattlesnakes,  and  mos- 
quitos.  Those  that  live  here  upon  their 
cattle  must  be  constrained  to  take  farms 
in  the  country,  or  else  they  cannot  sub- 
sist ;  the  place  being  too  small  to  con- 
tain many,  and  fittest  for  such  as  can 
trade  into  England  for  such  commodi- 
ties as  the  country  wants,  being  the 
chief  place  for  shipping  and  merchan- 
dise. This  neck  of  land  is  not  above 
four  miles  in  compass ;  in  form  almost 
square,  having  on  the  south  side,  at  one 
corner,  a  great  broad  hill,  whereon  is 
planted  a  fort,  which  can  command  any 
ship  as  she  sails  into  any  harbor  within 
the  still  bay.  On  the  north  side  is  an- 
other hill,  equal  in  bigness,  whereon 
stands  a  windmill.  To  the  northwest 
is  a  high  mountain,  with  three  little 
rising  hills  on  the  top  of  it;  wherefore 
it  is  called  the  Tramount.  From  the 
top  of  this  mountain  a  man  may  over- 
look all  the  islands  which  lie  before  the 
bay,  and  descry  such  ships  as  are  upon 
the  sea-coast.  This  town,  although  it 
be  neither  the  greatest  nor  the  richest, 
VOL.  I.  31 


yet  it  is  the  most  noted  and  frequented, 
being  the  centre  of  the  plantations, 
where  the  monthly  Courts  are  kept. 
Here  likewise  dwells  the  Governor. 
This  jjlace  hath  very  good  land,  afford- 
ing rich  cornfields  and  fruitful  gardens; 
having  likewise  sweet  and  jjleasant 
springs."  The  highest  of  the  "  three 
little  rising  hills"  on  the  top  of  the 
"high  mountain,"  was  directly  behind 
the  present  State  House.  It  was  not 
levelled  till  about  the  year  1810. 

By  an  order  of  the  Assistants,  Novem- 
ber 7,  1632,  the  Boston  people  were 
allowed  to  take  wood  from  Dorchester 
Neck  (now  South  Boston)  for  twenty 
years.  (Mass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  101.)  At 
the  time  of  Wood's  departure,  Boston 
was  not  the  richest  of  the  settlements. 
When  the  sum  of  £  400  was  raised  for 
public  uses,  in  the  autimin  of  1633, 
Boston  and  four  other  towns  were  as- 
sessed £  48  each,  while  Dorchester 
had  to  pay  £  80.     (Ibid.,  110.) 

1  Winthrop,  I.  86. 


3G2  nisTORY  OF  new  England.  [Book  i. 

gansetts  were  known  to  have  meetings,  with  a  ^iew,  as 
they  gave  out,  to  an  expedition  against  the  Nipnets.  A 
friendly  pou'ow  sent  information  that  a  plot  was  on  foot ; 
and,  as  a  measure  of  precaution,  a  camp  was  formed  in 
Boston.^  The  small-pox,  which  spread  widely  among  the 
Indians  about  this  time,  was  thought  by  some  to  have 
been  the  main  protection  of  the  feeble  colony. 

The  Indians  had  had  no  provocation.^  Not  a  foot  of 
land  previously  in  their  occupation  had  been  appropriated 
by  the  colonists,  except  by  purchase.^  The  region  around 
Massachusetts  Bay,  almost  depopulated  by  the  epidemics 
which  had  prevailed  before  the  arrival  of  the  English,  was 
for  the  most  part  vacant  for  their  possession,  without  in- 
terference with  the  rights  of  any  earlier  inhabitant.  The 
English  Company  had  been  scrupulously  tender  of  the 
claims,  and  thoughtful  for  the  welfare,  of  the  aborigines 
1029.  of  the  soil.  "  Above  all,"  they  wrote  to  Endicott 
April  17.  -j^  their  instructions  to  him  and  his  Council,  "  we 
pray  you  be  careful  that  there  be  none  in  our  precincts 
permitted  to  do  any  injury,  in  the  least  kind,  to  the 
heathen  people;  and,  if  any  offend  in  that  way,  let  him 
receive  due  correction If  any  of  the  salvages  pre- 
tend right  of  inheritance  to  all  or  any  part  of  the  lands 
granted  in  our  jDatent,  we  pray  you  endeavor  to  purchase 
their  title,  that  we  may  avoid  the  least  scruple  of  intru- 
sion." "  The  earnest  desire  of  our  whole  company," 
wrote  Cradock  in  their  behalf,  "  is  that  you  have 

Feb.  IC.  1^1  1 

a  diligent  and  watchful  eye  over  our  own  people, 

1  Winthrop,  I.  89.  tice  of  "  restricting  savages  within  the 

2  Tlicy  were  tenderly  cared  for  in  narrowest  limits,"  says :  "  We  cannot, 
the  ravages  of  that  terrible  disease  however,  fail  to  applaud  the  niodcra- 
which  p(!rhaps  frustrated  their  hostil-  tion  of  the  English  Puritans,  who  first 
ity.  "  When  their  own  people  forsook  established  themselves  in  New  Eng- 
them,  yet  the  English  came  daily  and  land,  and  who,  though  furnished  with  a 
ministered  unto  them."  (Ibid.,  Hi);  charter  from  their  sovereign,  bought 
comp.  lie.)  from  the  savages  the  land  which  they 

3  Vattel  (Law  of  Nations,  Book  L  wished  to  occupy."  —  Chahners  bears  a 
Chap.  XVIII. ),  in  maintaining  the  jus-  like  testimony  (Revolt,  &c.,  I.  8G). 


Chap.  IX]  MASSACHUSETTS.  863 

that  they  live  unblamable  and  without  reproof,  and  de- 
mean themselves  justly  and  courteously  towards  the  In- 
dians."    There  was  much  more  to  the  same  effect.     And 
through  the  whole  period  of  the  colonial  history,  the  legisla- 
tion respecting  the  natives  was  eminently  j  ust  and  humane.^ 
The  last  harvest  raised  by  the  English  in  and  about 
Boston  had  been  scanty,  by  reason  of  cold  and  wet  weath- 
er through    the   summer.      Inadequate  supplies  scarcity 
came  from  England,  and,  the  winter  which  sue-  °'^'^^'"'- 
ceeded  proving  a  severe  one,  the  settlers  suffered  scarcely 
less  than  in  that  which  immediately  followed  their  arrival. 
The  hardship  of  the  time  did  not  prevent  energetic  action 
when  intelligence  arrived  of  the  concentration  of     ^^23. 
a  French  force  at  Port  Royal  in   Nova  Scotia,    •'^'"•i^- 
.accompanied  by  "  divers  priests  and  Jesuits."     The  Gov- 
ernor convened  the  Assistants,  with  "  the  minis- 

Preparations 

ters,  and  captains,  and  some  other  chief  men,"  to  against  the 
consult  upon  measures  proper  to  be  taken  for 
security  against  neighbors  so  unwelcome.  And  it  was 
determined  to  build  a  fort  at  Nantasket,  "  to  be  some 
block  in  an  enemy's  way,  though  it  could  not  bar  his  en- 
trance " ;  to  finish  that  which  had  been  laid  out  at  Bos- 
ton ;  and  to  see  "  that  a  plantation  should  be  begun  at 
Agawam  [Ipswich],  being  the  best  place  in  the  land  for 
tillage  and  cattle,  lest  an  enemy,  finding  it  void,  should 
possess  and  take  it  from  us."  ^ 

It  was  fortunate,  in  respect  to  the  deficient  supply  of 

^  "  It  is  agreed  that  Sir  Richard  Sal-  limits  of  the  said  patent,  he  shall  be  put 

tonstall   shall   give    Sagamore   John  a  to  death."  (Ibid.,  100;  comp.  121, 133.) 

hogshead  of  corn  for  the  hurt  his  cattle  That  specimens  of  this  kind  of  legislation 

did  him  in  his  corn."    (Mass.  Col.  Eec,  are  not  more  frequent,  is  owing  to  the 

I.  102.)     "It  is  ordered  that  Nicholas  determination   which   it   expressed,    to 

Frost,  for  thefl  committed  by  him  at  the  effect  of  its  severity  upon  disorder- 

Damarill's  Cove  upon  the  Indians, ly  pei-sons,  and  to  the  right  feeling  to- 

shall  be  severely  whipped,  and  branded  wards  the  natives  which  was  generally 

in  the  hand  with  a  hot  iron,  and  after  entertained, 
banished  out  of  this  patent,  with  penal-         2  Winthrop,  I.  99. 
ty  that,  if  ever  he  be  found  within  the 


3G-4  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

food,  that  there  had  been  but  little  addition  to  the  num- 
ber of  the  immigrants  since  the  arrival  of  Governor  Win- 
thro2:)'s  company.^  Persons  in  England  who  were  medi- 
tating a  removal  were  naturally  willing  further  to  watch 
the  experiment  as  it  was  made  by  those  who  had  gone 
before ;  and  what  they  had  learned  respecting  it  had  not 
been  highly  encouraging.  The  accounts  which  had  been 
received  of  sickness  and  famine,  and  the  return  of  some 
whose  resolution  had  not  held  out,  could  not  fail  to  give 
a  check  to  the  enterprise.  Representations  injurious  to 
the  Colony  had  been  made  by  the  Brownes,  Morton,  Gar- 
diner, RatclifF,"  and  others,  and  were  backed  by  the  great 
interest  of  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges,  and  of  John  Mason, 
who  was  concej-ned  with  him  in  the  Eastern  grants. 
These  had  not  been  without  effect  upon  the  minds  of* 
men  in  power ;  and  well-founded  apprehensions  were 
now  felt  of  annoyance  from  the  home  government. 

The  malecontents  had  actually  prevailed  to  have  their 
complaints  entertained  by  the  Privy  Council ;  "  among 
Tho  Colony  mauy  truths  misrepeated,"  writes  AYinthrop,  "ac- 
forTtirrrivy  cusiug  US  to  intcud  rebellion,  to  have  cast  off  our 
Council.  allegiance,  and  to  be  wholly  separate  from  the 
Church  and  laws  of  England ;  that  our  ministers  and  peo- 
ple did  continually  rail  against  the  state.  Church,  and 
bishops  there,  &c."  Saltonstall,  Humphrey,  and  Cradock 
(RatclifF's  master)  appeared  before  a  committee  of  the 
Council  in  the  Company's  behalf,  and  had  the  address  or 
the  good  fortune  to  vindicate  their  clients,  so  that,  on  the 
termination  of  the  affair,  the  kinc:  said  "he  would 

Jan.  19.  .  . 

have  them  severely  punished  who  did  abuse  his 
Governor  and  the  plantation  "  ;  and  from  members  of  the 
Privy  Council  it  was  learned,  says  Winthrop,  "  that  his 
Majesty  did  not  intend  to  impose  the  ceremonies  of  the 
Chuif  li  (jf  England  upon  us,   for  that  it  was  considered 

^  The  number  of  immigrants  in  IC.'U         ~  S(!C    above,    pp.    298,    310,    330, 
had  been  about  90;  and  250  in  1G32.        351. 


Chap.  IX.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  365 

that  it  was  the  freedom  from  such  things  that  made  peo- 
ple come  over  to  us ;  and  it  was  credibly  informed  to  the 
Council,  that  this  country  would  in  time  be  very  bene- 
ficial to  England  for  masts,  cordage,  &c.,  if  the  Sound 
[the  passage  to  the  Baltic]  should  be  debarred."  ^ 

The  reasons  for  dismissing  the  complaint  were  alleged 
in  the  order  adopted  by  the  Council  to  that  effect :  "  Most 
of  the  things  informed  being  denied,  and  resting  to  be 
proved  by  parties  that  must  be  called  from  that  place, 
which  reqiiired  a  long  expense  of  time,  and  at  the  present 
their  lordships  finding  that  the  adventurers  were  upon 
the  despatch  of  men,  victuals,  and  merchandises  for  that 
place,  all  which  would  be  at  a  stand  if  the  adventurers 
should  have  discouragement,  or  take  suspicion  that  the 
state  here  had  no  good  opinion  of  that  plantation,  —  their 
lordships,  not  laying  the  fault,  or  fancies  (if  any  be),  of 
some  particular  men  upon  the  general  government,  or 
principal  adventurers,  which  in  due  time  is  further  to  be 
inquired  into,  have  thought  fit  in  the  mean  time  to  de- 
clare that  the  appearances  were  so  fair,  and  the  hopes  so 
great,  that  the  country  would  prove  both  beneficial  to  this 
kingdom  and  profitable  to  the  particular  adventurers,  as 
that  the  adventurers  had  cause  to  go  on  cheerfully  with 
their  undertakings,  and  rest  assured,  if  things  were  carried 
as  was  pretended  when  the  patents  were  granted,  and 
accordingly  as  by  the  patents  it  is  appointed,  his  Majesty 
would  not  only  maintain  the  liberties  and  privileges  here- 
tofore granted,  but  supply  anything  further  that  might 
tend  to  the  good  government  of  the  place,  and  prosperity 
and  comfort  to  his  people  there."  ^ 

1  Winthrop,  I.  100,  108.  "upon  long  debate  of  the  whole  car- 

2  Journal  of  the  Privy  Council.  —  riage  of  the  plantations  of  that  coun- 
The  business  had  been  brought  before  try,"  twelve  Lords,  with  authority  to 
the  Lords  of  the  Privy  Council,  Decern-  call  to  their  assistance  any  persons 
ber  19,  1632,  by  "several  petitions  of-  whom  they  should  see  fit,  were  directed 
fercd  by  some  planters  of  New  Eng-  to  "  examine  how  the  patents  for  the 
land,  and  a  written  declaration  by  Sir  said  plantations  have  been  granted,  and 
Christopher   Gardiner,    Knt."  ;    when,  how  carried,"  and   "  the  truth  of  the 

31* 


3G6 


HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 


[Book  I. 


At  the  annual  election  in  the  following  spring,  for  a 

fourth  time  Winthrop  was  made  Governor  and  Dudley 

Deputy-Governor,  and  the  eicrht  Assistants  of  the 

May  29.  1         ^  '  _     O 

Rc-oiection  of  last  year  were  re-chosen,  with  the  addition  of  Sir 
Richard  Saltonstall,  who  was  expected  soon  to 

return  from  England.  By  an  appointment  of  the  magis- 
trates at  their  first  meeting,  "  a  day  of  thanksgiv- 
ing was  kept  in  all  the  congregations  for  their 

deliverance  from  the  plots  of  their  enemies  " ;  and  they 
made  a  grant  of  "  one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds 
to   the  Governor,  for  this  present  year,  towards 

his  public  charges  and  extraordinary  expenses." 


Juno  19. 


July! 


aforesaid  informations,  or  such  other 
informations  as  shall  be  presented  to 
them,"  and  to  "  make  report  thereof  to 
this  Board,  and  of  the  true  state  of  the 
plantations  as  they  find  them  now  to 
stand  ;  for  ■which  purfwse  they  are  to 
call  before  them  such  of  the  patentees 
and  such  of  the  complainants  and  their 
witnesses,  or  any  other  persons,  as  they 
shall  think  fit."  (Ibid.) 

Emanuel  Downing,  father  of  the 
more  famous  Sir  George  Downing,  and 
brother-in-law  of  Winthrop,  proved  a 
good  friend  to  the  [Massachusetts  plant- 
ers on  this  occasion.  Thomas  W^iggin, 
of  Piscataciua,  was  another.  There  is 
in  the  State-Paper  Office  a  letter  from 
him,  dated  November  19,  1C.32,  to  "  Sir 
John  Cooke,  Knt.,  Principal  Secretary 
to  his  IVIajesty."  He  had  "  lately  been 
in  New  England  in  America."  The 
English  "  in  the  INIassachusetts "  were 
"  about  two  thousand  people,  young 
and  old,"  and  were  "  generally  most  in- 
dustrious and  fit  for  such  a  work."  He 
says :  "  I  have  observed  the  planters 
there,  by  their  loving,  just,  and  kind 
dealing  with  the  Indians,  have  gotten 
their  love  and  respect  and  drawn  tliem 
to  an  outward  conformity  to  the  Eng- 
lish, so  that  the  Indians  repair  to  the 
English  Governor  there  and  his  depu- 
ties for  justice.     And  for  the  Governor 


himself,  I  have  observed  him  to  be  a 
discreet  and  sober  man,  giving  good 
example  to  all  the  planters,  wearing 
plain  apparel,  such  as  may  well  be- 
seem a  mean  man,  drinking  ordinarily 
water,  and,  when  he  is  not  conversant 
about  matters  of  justice,  putting  his 
hand  to  any  ordinary  labor  with  his 
servants,  ruling  with  much  mildness ; 
and  in  this  particular  I  observed  him 
to  be  strict  in  execution  of  justice  upon 
such  as  have  scandalized  this  state, 
either  in  civil  or  ecclesiastical  govern- 
ment, to  the  great  contentment  of  those 
that  are  best  affected,  and  to  the  terror 
of  offenders."  He  gives  a  dismal  re- 
port of  Morton,  Gardiner,  and  llatcliff, 
and  says  he  is  informed  that  tliey  "  do 
address  themselves  to  Sir  Fcrdinando 
Gorges,  who  by  their  false  informations 
is  now  projecting  how  to  deprive  that 
plantation  of  the  privileges  granted  by 
his  Majesty,  and  to  subvert  their  gov- 
ernment." "  Being  none  of  their  plan- 
tation," he  says,  "but  a  neighbor  by, 
I  have  done  this  out  of  that  respect  I 
bear  to  the  general  good."  Wiggin 
had  been  superintendent  of  the  upper 
plantation  on  the  Piscatacpia,  and  was 
continued  in  the  same  trust  by  Lord  Say 
and  Sele,  Lord  Brooke,  and  tlieir  two 
partners,  who  purchased  tliat  territory 
in  1G32.     See  below,  p.  517. 


Chap    IX.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  367 

The  death  of  Archbishop  Abbot,  making  way  for  the 
accession  of  the  furious  Laud  to  the  primacy,  was  nearly 
contemporaneous  with  the  renewal  of  emigration 

^  _  '-'  Renewal  of 

to  New  England.      Several  parties  of  colonists^  thoemigra- 
now  arrived  at  Boston,  in  one  of  which  came  John 
Haynes,  an  opulent  landholder  of  the  county  of 
Essex,  and  three  famous  divines,  Thomas  Hooker, 
Samuel  Stone,  and  John  Cotton.     They  were  men  of  emi- 
nent capacity  and  sterling  character,  fit  to  be  concerned  in 
the  founding  of  a  state.     In  all  its  generations  of  worth 
and  refinement,  Boston  has  never  seen  an  assembly  more 
illustrious  for  generous  qualities  or  for  manly  culture,  than 
when  the  magistrates  of  the  young  colony  welcomed  Cot- 
ton and  his  fellow-voyagers  at  Winthrop's  table. 

Hooker  and  Stone  went  to  Newtown,  and  were  chosen, 
the  former  to  be  pastor,  and  the  latter  to  be  teacher,  of  a 
church  established  there.  In  the  sequel  of  a  conference 
between  the  "  Governor  and  Council  "  and  "  the  ministers 
and  elders  of  all  the  churches,""  Cotton,  much  coveted  by 
other  plantations,  was  associated  with  Wilson  as  teacher 
of  the  Boston  church.  The  new  ministers  were  severally 
inducted  to  their  offices  with  solemnities  similar  to  those 
which  had  been  first  adopted  at  Salem. 

The  borough  of  Boston  in  Lincolnshire,  which  perhaps 
had  already  furnished  to  Massachusetts  some  of  its  emi- 
nent settlers,^  stands  low  upon   the  river  Witham,  five 

1  The  number,  in  1633,  was  about  Iingham,Leverett, and  Hutchinson  came 
seven  hundred.  (Winthrop,  I.  100,  later.  The  Reverend  Mr.  AVhiting,  of 
102,  104,  105,  108,  111,  115.)  Saugus,  had  been  rector  of  the  church 

2  Ibid.,  112.  at  Skirbeck,  a  mile  from  Boston. 

3  As  early  as  March,  1629,  ten  "Bos-  It  isfrom  Cotton  Mather  (Magnalla, 
ton  men"  had  proposed  to  take  a  large  Book  II.  Chap.  V.)  that  we  have  the 
interest  in  the  Company  (see  above,  p.  particulars  of  Dudley's  early  life ;  and  I 
292).  Of  distinguished  early  emigrants  do  not  see  that  he  had  a  motive  for 
to  Massachusetts,  commonly  referred  to  misstating  them,  or  that,  situated  as  he 
the  English  Boston  (see  Young,  Massa-  was,  he  could  have  been  mistaken  in 
chusetts,  48,  note  3),  Dudley  and  Cod-  them.  Yet,  contrary  to  his  testimony, 
dington  came  over  with  the  charter  ;  Thomson  (History  and  Antiquities  of 
Hough  accompanied  Cotton,  and  Bel-  Boston,  427)    says:    "Boston   has   no 


368  HISTORY  OF  KEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

miles  from  the  eastern  coast  of  England.  At  the  end  of 
the  thirteenth  century,  its  commercial  importance  was 
such,  that  it  is  said  to  have  "  paid  twice  as  much  duty 
upon  the  great  articles  of  export  of  the  time  as  London 
did,  and  more  than  a  third  of  the  entire  duty  paid  upon 
those  articles  hy  the  whole  kingdom."  ^  At  present,  it 
contains  about  seventeen  thousand  inhabitants.  Its  name 
was  derived  from  its  ancient  church  of  St.  Botolph,  per- 
haps the  most  stately  parish  church  in  England,  a  cathe- 
dral in  size  and  beauty.  It  was  from  this  superb  temple 
that  John  Cotton  came  to  preach  the  Gospel 
within  the  mud  walls  and  imder  the  thatched 
roof  of  the  meeting-house  in  a  rude  New-England  hamlet. 
He  was  rector  of  St.  Botolph's  for  nearly  twenty  years 
before  Winthrop's  emigration  to  America.-  The  son  of  a 
barrister  in  easy  circumstances,  he  had  been  successively 
an  undergraduate  at  Trinity  College,  and  a  Fellow  and 
Tutor  at  Emmanuel  College,  in  the  University  of  Cam- 
bridge, where  he  had  acquired  a  distinguished  reputation 
for  ability  and  learning.  In  Boston,  his  professional 
labors  had  been  of  astonishing  amount,  and  the  sanctity 
and  mingled  force  and  amiableness  of  his  character  had 
won  for  him  a  vast  influence.  At  the  departure  of  Win- 
throp's company,  he  made  a  journey  to  take  leave  of 
them  at  Southampton.^  The  Lord  Keeper,  Williams,  his 
diocesan,  was  his  personal  friend,  and  desired  to  deal 
gently  with  his  non-conformity.  But  the  Archbishop  was 
not  to  be  eluded.      The   dogs  of  the  High-Commission 

claim  to  Thomas  Dudley."     "  Nor,"  he  i  Ibid.,  347. 

adds,  "has  this  district  any  better  claim  2  Cotton  Avas  not  at  Boston  till  five 

to  William  Coddington  ;  he  was  prob-  years  after  the  attempt  of  the  Scrooby 

ably  a  resident  of  Alford  or  its  neigh-  people  to  sail  thence  for  Holland.     See 

borhood."    Belli ngham  also,  though  Re-  above,  p.  138. 

corder    of    Boston,     Thomson    thinks  ^  Scottow,  Narrative  of  the  Planting 

never    resided    there.       (Ibid.,   428.)  of   the   Massachusetts    Colony,    13.  — 

Hutchinson  was  of  a  Boston  family,  but  See  above,  p.  310,  note  3. 

his  residence  was  in  the   neighboring 

town  of  Alford.     (Ibid.,  431.) 


CiiAP.  IX.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  369 

Court  were  set  upon  Cotton,  and  with  difficulty  he  es- 
caped to  London,  where  for  a  time  he  was  concealed  by 
John  Davenport,  then  vicar  of  St.  Stephen's,  and  by  other 
friends.  His  design  to  get  out  of  the  kingdom  was 
suspected,  and  pursuivants  were  sent  to  arrest  him  and 
Hooker  at  the  Isle  of  Wight,  where  it  was  supposed  they 
would  embark.  But  they  went  on  board  in  the  Downs, 
and,  avoiding  discovery,  arrived  at  their  destination. 

After  another  harvest,  there  was  still  "  great  scarcity  of 
corn,  yet  people  lived  well  with  fish  and  the  fruit  of  their 
gardens."  ^  The  urgency  of  the  case  had  shown,  for  the 
time,  the  folly  of  laws  restricting  the  terms  of  sale  for  the 
necessaries  of  life :  and  "  the  price  of  corn,  for- 

.      .  ApriH, 

merly  restrained  to  six  shillings  the  bushel,  was 
now  set  at  liberty  to  be  sold  as  men  could  agree."     The 
supplies  of  the  year,  though  insufficient  for  comfort,  were 
thought  to  be  enough  for  gratitude ;  and,  "  in  regard  of 
the  many  and  extraordinary  mercies  which  the  Lord  had 
been  pleased  to  vouchsafe  of  late  to  this  plantation,  name- 
ly, a  plentiful  harvest,  ships  lately  arrived  with  persons 
of  special  use  and  quality,  &c.,"  a  day  was  ap- 
pointed  for   "  public   thanksgiving   through  the 
several  plantations."^ 

Enterprises  of  discovery  and  trade  began  to  be  under- 
taken.    The  restless  John  Oldham,  with  three  compan- 
ions,  found    his    way    by   land    to    Connecticut  September. 
Hiver,  which  on  their  return  they  reported  to  be  toTo"" c'oT 
about  one  hundred  and  sixty  miles  distant  from  "«•=''•="'• 
the  Bay.      They  had    "  lodged   at  Indian  towns  all  the 
way,"  and  brought  back  some  beaver,  some  "  hemp,  which 
grows  there  in  great  abundance,  and  is  much  better  than 
the  English,"  and  "  some  black  lead,  whereof  the  Indians 


1  Winthrop,  I.  108.  and  November  28,  1639  (Ibid.,  277)5 

2  Similar  festivals  in  recognition  of  but  it  does  not  appear  that  in  the  earli- 
the  bounties  of  the  year  were  held  Oc-  est  times  there  was  always  an  autumnal 
tober  8,  1638  (Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  I.  241),  thanksgiving.     (See  above,  p.  187.) 


370  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

told  him  there  was  a  whole  rock."  ^  A  vessel  of  sixty 
tons,  the  Blessing  of  the  Bai/,  which  had  been  built  by 
the  Governor  at  Mystic,  coasted  Long  Island  (where  the 
natives  were  "  a  very  treacherous  people "),  looked  into 
the  Connecticut  River,  and  visited  the  Dutch  settlement 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Hudson,  where  her  people  found  a 
courteous  reception,  and  bartered  their  commodities  for 
some  beaver.  They  protested  against  any  attempt  of  the 
Dutch  upon  Connecticut,  and  were  answered  by  a  request 
that  all  controversy  upon  the  subject  might  be  referred  to 
the  home  governments  of  the  rival  parties.^ 

The  example  of  men  of  such  note  as  had  recently  come 
over,  and  the  desire  of  being  associated  with  them,  had 
a  favorable  effect  on  further  emigration.  The  renewal  of 
the  movement  attracted  the  attention  of  the  English  court, 
and  secured  a  more  favorable  hearing  for  the  representa- 
Renewaiof  ^ious  of  disaffcctcd  persons,  if  indeed  we  are  not 
rompiaints     rathcr  to  suppose  that  the  injurious  representa- 

at  court.  ,  .        .       ,  ,  Till 

tions  were  invited  and  rewarded  by  the  govern- 
ment at  home.  The  spirit  of  the  court  had  now  reached 
its  height  of  arrogance  and  passion.  It  "was  at  this  time 
that  ship-money  was  first  levied,  and  the  Star  Chamber 
was  rioting  in  the  barbarities  which  were  soon  to  bring 
an  awful  retribution.  The  precedent  by  which,  in  dis- 
regard of  the  chartered  privileges  of  the  Virginia  Com- 
pany,^ the  government  of  A'irginia  had  been  taken  into 
the  king's  hands,  was  urged  in  relation  to  the  Massachu- 
setts Company.  An  Order  in  Council  was  obtained,  re- 
1031.  citing  that  "  the  Board  is  given  to  understand  of 
Feb.  21.  ^j^g  frequent  transportation  of  great  numbers  of 
his  Majesty's  subjects  out  of  this  kingdom  to  the  planta- 
tion called  New  England,  amongst  whom  divers  persons 
known  to  be  ill-affected,  discontented  not  only  with  civil 
but  ecclesiastical  government  here,  are  observed  to  resort 
thither,  whereby  such  confusion  and  distraction  is  already 

i  Wintbrop,  I.  11.  2  Hjij.^  133^  134.  3  See  above,  p.  192,  note. 


Chap.  IX.] 


MASSACHUSETTS. 


371 


grown  there,  especially  in  point  of  religion,  as,  beside  the 
ruin  of  the  said  plantation,  cannot  but  highly  tend  to  the 
scandal  both  of  church  and  state  here."  Thereupon  it 
commanded  the  detention  of  "divers  ships  now  in  the 
river  of  Thames,  ready  to  set  sail  thither,  freighted  with 
passengers  and  provisions  " ;  the  attendance  of  the  masters 
before  the  Council,  on  an  appointed  day,  "  with  a  list  of 
the  passengers  and  provisions  in  each  ship"';  and  the 
production  before  the  board,  by  Mr.  Cradock,  of  the  char- 
ter of  the  Massachusetts  Company.  Cradock's  reply,  that 
the  charter  had  gone  to  America,  perhaps  first  apprised 
the  government  of  that  important  fact.^ 

Intelligence  of  the  threatening  state  of  affairs  in  Eng- 
land had  not  reached  the  Colony,  when  a  transaction  took 
place  of  the  utmost  importance  in  relation  to  its  Reform  of  the 
internal  order.     It  now  contained  three  or  four  go^^nn^ent. 


1  Journal  of  the  Privy  Council.  The 
proceeding  began  and  ended  as  follows. 

1634,  February  10.  The  bailiffs  and 
officers  of  customs  of  Ipswich  were  or- 
dered to  stay  a  ship  bound  for  New 
England  with  passengers. 

February  14.  An  order  was  de- 
spatched to  the  marshals  of  the  Admi- 
ralty, and  to  all  officers  of  the  navy  and 
customs,  to  stop  ten  ships  in  the  Thames 
bound  for  New  England. 

February  28.  The  masters  of  the 
vessels  detained  were  called  before  the 
Council,  and,  for  "  reasons  best  known 
to  their  Lordships,"  it  was  "  thought  fit 
that  for  this  time  they  should  be  per- 
mitted to  proceed  on  their  voyage," 
after  giving  bonds, —  (1.)  To  cause  all 
persons  on  board  their  ships  "that  should 
blaspheme,  or  profane  the  holy  name  of 
God,"  to  "  be  severely  punished  " ;  (2.) 
To  "  cause  the  prayei's  contained  in  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayers  established 
in  the  Church  of  England  to  be  said 
daily,  at  the  usual  hours  for  morning 
and  evening  prayers,"  in  the  presence 
of  "  all  persons  aboard  these  said  ships  " ; 


(3.)  To  "receive  aboard  or  transport " 
no  passenger  not  certified  by  the  offi- 
cers of  the  port  of  embarkation  to  have 
"  taken  both  the  oaths  of  allegiance  and 
supremacy";  (4.)  To  certify,  "upon 
their  return  into  this  kingdom,  the 
names  of  all  such  persons  as  they  should 
transport,  with  their  proceedings  in  the 
execution  of  the  above  articles." 

1635,  January  21  and  February  18. 
The  shipmasters'  bonds  were  cancelled. 

2  Hutchinson  (I.  36,37)  erroneously 
supposes  the  Orders  for  detaining  ships 
to  have  been  made  in  1633,  and  to  have 
preceded  the  large  emigration  in  the 
summer  of  that  year.  For  he  goes  oq 
to  say :  "  It  is  certain  a  stop  was  not 
put  to  the  emigration.  There  came 
over,  amongst  many  others  in  this  year, 
Mr.  Ilaynes,"  &c.  The  Orders  are 
dated  in  February,  1633,  but  this  was 
by  the  reckoning  of  the  Old  Style,  ac- 
cording to  which  the  year  began  oa 
Lady  Day,  or  the  25  th  of  March. 
Hutchinson  also  (37)  confounds  the  ac- 
tion of  the  Council  in  this  year  with  that 
in  the  year  before  (see  above,  p.  365.) 


372  HISTORY   OF   new  ENGLAXD.  [Dook  I. 

thousand  inhabitants,  distributed  in  sixteen  towns. ^  The 
settlements  had  so  extended,  that  the  most  distant,  Ips- 
wich, "was  thirty  miles  from  the  capital,  and  it  was  not 
convenient  or  safe  for  the  freemen  all  to  travel  to  Boston 
at  the  same  time.  Everything  tended  to  a  chango  in 
the  organization  of  the  government,  and  the  considera- 
tions which  manifested  its  necessity  at  the  same  time  dic- 
tated its  form.  The  freemen,  by  some  previous  concert, 
the  method  of  which  is  not  recorded,  determined  to  do 
by  representation  a  part  of  the  office  which  belonged 
to  them  in  the  management  of  the  corporate  business ; 
and,  at  the  fifth  General  Court  held  in  Massachu- 

May  14. 

setts,  twenty-four  persons  appeared,  delegated  by 
eight  towns  ^  "  to  meet  and  consider  of  such  matters  as 
they  [the  freemen]  were  to  take  order  in  at  the  same  Gen- 
eral Court."  This  great  step  was  an  easy  extension  of  the 
proceeding  of  the  General  Court  of  the  second  year  be- 
fore, when  deputies  had  been  sent  from  the  towns  with 
a  power  limited  to  the  assessment  of  taxcs.^ 

Having  assembled,  the  Deputies  "  desired  a  sight  of  the 
patent,  and,  conceiving  thereby  that  all  their  laws  should 
be  made  at  the  General  Court,  repaired  to  the  Governor 
to  advise  with  him  about  it."  "*     lie  told  them,  that,  when 

1  Wood,  New  England's  Prospect,  above,  p.  302.)  Certainly  neither  the 
44.  "These  [the  sixteen  which  he  had  legal  existence  of  a  corporation,  nor  the 
described]  be  all  the  towns  that  were  validity  of  its  votes,  depends  on  the 
begun  when  I  came  for  England,  Avhich  presence  in  one  place  rather  than  an- 
was  the  fifteenth  of  August,  1G33."  other  of  the  signed  and  sealed  instru- 

2  Namely,  three  each  from  New-  mont  which  gave  it  being.  But,  in  cases 
town,  Watertown,  Charlestown,  Boston,  rcijiilring  an  appeal  to  public  instru- 
Roxbury,  Dorchester,  Saugus,  and  Sa-  ments,  originals  always  have  necessarily 
lem.  The  towns  are  here  arranged  in  an  authority  superior  to  copies.  The 
the  order  of  the  lists  of  their  delegates  emigrants  to  IMassadiusetts  wisely  an- 
on the  record.   (Mass.  Col.  llec,  I.  lie.)  ticipated  that  occasions  for  such  appeal 

3  Winthrop,  I.  128.  See  above,  p.  might  arise,  and  they  prudently  desired 
854.  to  have  the  highest  evidence  in  their 

^  The  reader  may  have  felt  at  a  loss  own  hands,  both  to  save  it  from  being 

to  account  for  the  stress  laid  by  Win-  corrupted,  and  to  be  able  to  produce  it 

throp  and  his  friends  on  the  transfer  of  whenever  they  desired.    In  the  present 

the  original  cliarter  to  America.     (See  instance,  when  a  question  of  rights  un- 


Chap.  IX.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  373 

the  patent  was  granted,  it  was  supposed  that  the  number 
of  freemen  would  be  no  larger  than  could  conveniently 
assemble ;  that  such  was  no  longer  the  fact,  and  that  they 
could  best  act  by  representatives,  in  making  as  well  as 
in  executing  laws ;  that  whatever  might  be  hereafter,  "  for 
the  present  they  were  not  furnished  with  a  sufficient  num- 
ber of  men  qualified  for  such  a  business,  neither  could  the 
commonwealth  bear  the  loss  of  time  of  so  many  as  must 
intend  it ;  —  yet  this  they  might  do  at  present :  namely, 
they  might  at  the  General  Court  make  an  order,  that, 
once  in  the  year,  a  certain  number  should  be  appointed, 
upon  summons  from  the  Governor,  to  revise  all  laws,  &c., 
and  to  reform  what  they  found  amiss  therein ;  but  not  to 
make  any  new  laws,  but  prefer  their  grievances  to  the 
Court  of  Assistants" ;  —  and  that,  finally,  in  regard  to  pub- 
lic supplies  and  the  distribution  of  lands,  it  was  right  that 
they  should  have  a  decisive  voice,  and  "that  no  assess- 
ment should  be  laid  upon  the  country  without  the  con- 
sent of  such  a  committee,  nor  any  lands  disposed  of"  ^ 

Abundant  cause  as  they  had  to  revere  and  love  Win- 
throp,  the  democratic  jealousy  of  the  freemen  had  become 
aroused  by  his  long  continuance  in  office ;  —  the  more 
when  Cotton,  lately  arrived  as  he  was,  had  laid  down  the 
doctrine  in  his  Election  Sermon,  that  "a  magistrate  ought 
not  to  be  turned  into  the  condition  of  a  private  man  with- 
out just  cause,  and  to  be  publicly  convict,  no  more  than 
the  magistrates  may  not  turn  a  private  man  out  of  his 
freehold  without  like  public  trial.""  The  freemen  quietly 
expressed  their  judgment  as  to  the  theory  of  public  office 
being  of  the  nature  of  a  freehold,  by  abstaining  for  four 
years  from  a  re-election  of  any  person  to  be  Governor  at 
the  end  of  his  official  term. 

We  are  not,  however,  to  suppose,  that  disgust  at  Cot- 

der  the  charter  occurred,  if  only  a  copy  authenticity  would  have  been  subject 

could  have  been  produced,  though  cer-  to  suspicion  and  to  cavil, 

tified  like  that  which  had  been  sent  to  i  Winthrop,  I.  128,  129. 

Endicott  (Mass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  186),  its  .2  Ibid.,  132. 
VOL.  I.                                     32 


374  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

\ 

ton's  doctrine  respecting  permanence  in  office  was  even 
the  main  cause  of  the  tcm])orary  alienation  from 

Decline  of  .  . 

winii.rop's  Winthrop  of  the  confidence  of  his  constituents. 
^^^'^  Rather,  Cotton's  injudicious  interference  was  the 
result  of  observations,  which  a  little  time  had  sufficed  him 
to  make,  of  the  decline  of  the  Governor's  popularity.  In 
fact,  a  party  hostile  to  Winthrop  had  been  forming.  It 
was  impossible  that  a  ruler  should  undertake  so  untried 
a  task  as  that  which  had  devolved  on  him  on  his  arrival 
here,  and  execute  it  with  the  vigor  which  the  circum- 
stances required,  without  creating  vindictiveness  in  some, 
disaffection  and  distrust  in  many,  uneasiness  and  doubt 
even  in  minds  not  disposed  to  be  censorious.  Any  ques- 
tionable exercise  of  authority,  however  necessary  at  the  mo- 
ment, would  excite  alarm.  Every  practical  question  has 
two  sides ;  the  preferable  side  is  not  always  evident,  and 
the  honest  judgment  which  is  honestly  overruled  is  tempt- 
ed to  suspect  a  selfish  bias  in  the  successful  party.  In  the 
transactions  at  Watertown,  Winthrop  might  appear  to 
have  assumed  a  somewhat  overbearing  tonc.-^  The  "  old 
planters"  might  naturally  be  jealous  of  him.  He  had  had 
"  some  differences  "  with  Coddington,  as  well  as  with  Dud- 
ley ;  ~  and  one  effect  of  these  perhaps  appeared  in  the  elec- 
tion, by  the  Court  which  displaced  him,  of  Dudley  to  be 
his  successor,  and  of  Coddington  to  be  Treasurer.^  And, 
in  fine,  the  new  policy  of  introducing  Deputies  into  the 

1  See  above,  pp.  350,  353.  overcome  me.' "     He  desired,  "  without 

2  Winthrop,  I.  118.  — "  Some  differ-  offence,  to  refuse  the  offer,"  and  rather 
ences  fell  out  still,  now  and  then,  be-  to  buy,  "  and  so  very  lovingly  con- 
tween  the  Governor  and  the  Deputy,  eluded."  (Ibid.,  118.)  —  Bradstreet 
which  yet  were  soon  liealcd."  Soon  was  now  elected  Secretary  (Mass.  Col. 
after  one  of  them,  Winthrop  "wrote  Ilec,  I.  118),  the  fii-st  Secretary  chosen 
to  the  Deputy,  who  had  before  desired  on  this  side  of"  the  Avater. 

to  buy  a  fat  hon;  or  two  of  him,  being  3  Coddington  was  put  by  the  free- 

Bomcwhat  short  of  provisions,  to  desire  men   in   the   place   of   Pynchon,   who 

him  to  send  for  one,  and  to ac-  (Ibid.,  99)  had  been  appointed  Treas- 

cept  it  as  a  testimony  of  his  good  will,  urer  by  the  Assistants,  the  second  year 

The  Deputy  returned  this  an-  before.     Pynchon  was  the  first  Treas- 

8wer :  '  Your  overcoming  yourself  hath  urer  appointed  in  the  Colony. 


Chap.  IX.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  375 

General  Court  was  not  unnaturally  inaugurated  by  the 
deposition  of  the  highest  representative  of  the  old  policy, 
the  head  of  the  Magistrates.  This  is  the  first  instance  of 
an  election  by  ballot.^  It  would  have  been  hard  for  the 
freemen  to  nerve  themselves  to  the  point  of  displacing 
their  old  benefactor  by  the  customary  "  erection  of  hands." 
The  administrative  reform,  which  had  evidently  been 
well  considered  beforehand,  was  carried  out  in  a  business- 
like manner.  It  was  resolved,  "  that  none  but  Proceedings 
the  General  Court  hath  power  to  choose  and  ad-  GeL^rai' 
mit  freemen";  or  "to  make  and  establish  laws;  ^"""^ 
or  to  elect  and  appoint,"  remove,  or  determine  the  duties 
and  powers  of,  civil  or  military  officers ;  or  "  to  raise 
moneys  and  taxes,  and  to  dispose  of  lands."  ~  A  fine  was 
imposed  upon  the  Court  of  Assistants  for  consenting  to 
the  "  breach  of  an  order  of  Court  against  employing 
Indians  to  shoot  with  pieces."  It  was  probably  appre- 
hended that  resentment  at  these  proceedings  might  tempt 
the  Assistants  to  withdraw  from  their  duties ;  and  accord- 
ingly, "  if  any  Assistant,  or  any  man  deputed  by  the  free- 
men to  deal  in  public  occasions  of  the  Commojiwealth, 
should  absent  himself  without  leave  in  time  of  public 
business,"  his  negligence  was  made  punishable  by  fine,  at 
the  discretion  of  the  Court.  A  series  of  laws  of  the  Assist- 
ants "concerning  swine"  had  occasioned  dissatisfaction  and 
quarrels.  They  were  now  repealed  ;  and  it  was  "  agreed  that 
every  town  shall  have  liberty  to  make'such  orders  about 

1  "  Chosen  by  papers."  (Mass.  Col.  Governor,  and  Assistants  had  authority 
Kec,  I.  132.)  by  the  charter  "to  take  care  for  the 

2  At  their  Court  six  weeks  earher  best  disposing  and  ordering  of  the  gen- 
(Mass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  Ill), the  Assistants  eral  business  and  affairs  of,  for,  and 
had  made  some  lavish  distributions  of  concerning  the  said  lands."  (Ibid.,  10.) 
land,  giving,  for  instance,  a  thousand  The  equitable  principle  of  taxation  was 
acres  to  Mr.  Haynes,  five  hundred  acres  now  adopted,  "that,  in  all  rates  and  pub- 
to  the  Deputy-Governor  and  the  same  to  lie  charges,  the  towns  shall  have  respect 
Mr.  Oldham,  and  so  on.  And  this  may  to  levy  every  man  according  to  his  estate, 
have  moved  the  freemen  to  restrict  the  and  with  consideration  of  all  other  his 
right  of  the  Assistants  in  this  respect,  abilities  whatsoever,andnotaccordinT to 
But   in   fact    the    Governor,    Deput)'-  the  number  of  his  persons."  (Ibid.,  120.) 


376  HISTORY   OF   NEW  EKGLAXD.  [Book  I. 

swine  as  they  shall  judge  best  for  themselves."  The  judicial 
power  of  the  Magistrates  was  abridged  by  an  order  "  that 
no  trial  shall  pass  upon  any  for  life  or  banishment,  but 
by  a  jury  summoned,  or  by  the  General  Court,"  the  jurors 
to  be  designated  by  the  freemen  of  the  several  plantations. 
The  charter  had  provided  for  four  General  Courts  in  a  year. 
Since  the  first  summer  of  its  administration  in  New  Eng- 
land, only  one  in  each  year  had  been  convened,  the  annual 
spring  Court  of  Elections.  It  was  now  "  ordered,  that 
there  shall  be  four  General  Courts  held  yearly,  to  be  sum- 
moned by  the  Governor  for  the  time  being,  and  not  to  be 
dissolved  without  the  consent  of  the  major  part  of  the 
Court."  And  finally,  to  give  permanence  to  the  repre- 
sentative power  of  the  Commons,  it  was  enacted,  "  that 
it  shall  be  lawful  for  the  freemen  of  every  plantation  to 
choose  two  or  three  of  each  town  before  every  General 
Court,  to  confer  of  and  prepare  such  public  business  as 
by  them  shall  be  thought  fit  to  consider  of  at  the  next 
General  Court,  and  that  such  persons  as  shall  be  hereafter 
so  deputed  by  the  freemen  of  the  several  plantations  to 
deal  in  their  behalf  in  the  public  affairs  of  the  Common- 
wealth, shall  have  the  full  power  and  voices  of  all  the 
said  freemen,  derived  to  them  for  the  making  and  estab- 
lishing of  laws,  granting  of  lands,  &c.,  and  to  deal  in  all 
other  affairs  of  the  Commonwealth  wherein  the  freemen 
have  to  do,  the  matter  of  election  of  Magistrates  and  other 
oflficers  only  excepted,  wherein  every  freeman  is  to  gi"\'e  his 
own  voice."  ^ 

This  General  Court  "  held  three  days,  and  all  things 
were  carried  very  peaceably."  ~  It  did  not  confine  its  at- 
tention to  methods  for  securing  the  popular  authority 
which  it  vindicated.  The  new  democracy  proved  as  little 
loyal  to  England  as  the  magistracy  which  had  hitherto 
held  iiiK'liecked  sway.  In  the  preceding  month,  an  oath 
engaging   allegiance   to   the   government   of   the   Colony, 

I  Mass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  117-120.  2  -Wintlirop,  I.  132. 


Chap.  IX.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  377 

but  saying  nothing  of  the  government  of  the  king,  had 
been  prescribed  by  the  Assistants,  to  be  taken,  under 
penalty  of  banishment,  by  "  every  man  of  or  above  tlie 
age  of  twenty  years,  who  hath  been,  or  shall  hereafter  be, 
resident  within  this  jurisdiction  by  the  space  of  six  months 
as  an  householder  or  sojourner,  and  not  enfranchised."  ^ 
A  form  of  oath,  modelled  upon  this,  was  now  appointed 
by  the  General  Court,  to  be  taken  by  the  freemen;  and 
"  it  was  agreed  and  ordered,  that  the  former  oath  of  free- 
men shall  be  revoked,  so  far  as  it  is  dissonant  from  the 
oath  of  freemen  hereunder  written,  and  that  those  that 
received  the  former  oath  shall  stand  bound  no  further 
thereby,  to  any  intent  or  purpose,  than  this  new  oath 
ties  those  that  now  take  the  same."  It  was  as  follows :  — 
"  I,  A.  B.j  being,  by  God's  providence,  an  inhabitant 
and  freeman  within  the  jurisdiction  of  this  commonwealth, 
do  freely  acknowledge  myself  to  be  subject  to  the  Freeman's 
government  thereof,  and  therefore  do  here  swear,  "'''''• 
by  the  great  and  dreadful  name  of  the  ever-living  God, 
that  I  will  be  true  and  faithful  to  the  same,  and  will  ac- 
cordingly yield  assistance  and  support  thereunto,  with  my 
person  and  estate,  as  in  equity  I  am  bound,  and  will  also 
truly  endeavor  to  maintain  and  preserve  all  the  liberties 
and  privileges  thereof,  submitting  myself  to  the  wholesome 
laws  and  orders  made  and  established  by  the  same ;  and 
further,  that  I  will  not  plot  nor  practise  any  evil  against 
it,  nor  consent  to  any  that  shall  so  do,  but  will  timely 
discover  and  reveal  the  same  to  lawful  authority  now  here 
established,  for  the  speedy  preventing  thereof.  Moreover, 
I  do  solemnly  bind  myself,  in  the  sight  of  God,  that,  when 
I  shall  be  called  to  give  my  voice  touching  any  such 
matter  of  this  state,  wherein  freemen  are  to  deal,  I  will 
give  my  vote  and  suffrage  as  I  shall  judge  in  mine  own 
conscience  may  best  conduce  and  tend  to  the  public  weal 


1  Mass.  Col.  Kec,  I.  115. 
32* 


378  HISTORY  OF  new  England.  [Book  i. 

of  the  body,  without  respect  of  persons,  or  favor  of  any 
man.     So  help  me  God,  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  ^ 

Thus,  after  an  administration  of  four  years  under  the 
charter,  the  freemen  took  a  share  in  the  government  out 
of  the  hands  of  the  oHgarchy  of  Assistants  into  their  own. 
The  popular  representative  body  which  they  established 
was  the  second,  in  point  of  time,  on  the  American  conti- 
nent, the  House  of  Burgesses  of  Virginia  having  preceded 
it  by  fifteen  years.  In  their  measures  at  this  period,  the 
freemen  seem  to  have  intended  a  significant  and  decisive, 
but  not  needlessly  offensive,  exercise  of  power.  Their  re- 
served and  moderate  action  may  have  been  partly  owing  to 
the  influence  of  prescription  and  habit.  It  may  have  been 
enforced  by  a  sense  of  the  expediency  of  keeping  on  good 
terms  with  opulent  friends  of  the  Magistrates,  who,  both 
here  and  in  England,  continued  their  bounties  to  the  set- 
tlement.^ But  it  is  more  satisfactory  to  refer  it  to  a  sense 
of  justice  towards  upright  and  public-spirited  men,  and  to 
a  wise  discernment  of  the  importance  of  their  services  to 
the  common  weal.  Before  parting,  they  remitted  the  fine 
which  had  been  imposed  on  the  Assistants  of  the  last  year. 
And  they  re-elected  the  old  Board,  with  the  addition  of  the 
affluent  Ilayncs,  lately  arrived,  and  the  substitution  of 
Winthrop,  the  deposed  Governor,  for  Ludlow,  who  was 
promoted  to  the  second  office.^ 

Yet  there  were  not  wanting  to  AVinthrop  the  mortifica- 
tions with  which  the  popular  mood  is  wont  to  follow  su- 
,...  ,  perscded  favorites.    In  the  first  vear  after  his  depo- 

vv  intlirop's       ••■  ^  J. 

lossoffiivor   sition,  "  the  inhabitants  of  Boston  met  to  choose 

in  Boston. 

seven  men  who  should  divide  the  town  lands  among 

^  Mass.  Col.  Rec,  117.  cys  given  to  that  end;  for  godly  people 
2  For  instance,  i\Ir.  Ilayncs  gave  fifty  in  England  began  now  to  apprehend  a 
pounds  towards  the  construction  of  a  special  hand  of  God  in  raising  this  plan- 
floating  batteiy  (Tbid.,  100)  ;  and  when,  tation."  (Winthrop,  I.  135.  Conip. 
in  July,  1G;J4,  "Mr.  IIumi)hrey  and  the  ibid  ,  136  ;  Mass.  Col.  llec,  I.  128.) 
Lady  Susan,  his  wife,  one  of  the  Earl  3  "  Xiie  new  Governor  and  the  As- 
of  Lincoln's  sisters,  arrived  here,  he  sistants  were  together  entertained  at  the 
brouglit  niorc  ordnance,  muskets,  and  house  of  the  old  Governor,  as  before." 
powder,  bought  lor  the  public  by  mon-  (Winthrop,  I.  158.) 


Chap.  IX.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  879 

them."  It  seems,  there  existed  an  apprehension  "that  the 
richer  men  would  give  the  poorer  sort  no  great  propor- 
tions of  land,  but  would  rather  leave  a  great  part  at  lib- 
erty for  new-comers  and  for  common,  which  Mr.  AVm- 
throp  had  oft  persuaded  them  unto,  as  best  for  the  town." 
The  consequence  was,  that,  in  a  vote  by  ballot,  the  citi- 
zens "  left  out  Mr.  Coddington  and  other  of  the  chief 
men,"  and  elected  Winthrop  only  "  by  a  voice  or  two," 
with  "  one  of  the  elders  and  a  deacon,  and  the  rest  of  the 
inferior  sort."  As  the  most  effectual  way  of  rebuking  the 
error,  Winthrop  refused  to  serve,  "telling  them  that, 
though  for  his  part  he  did  not  apprehend  any  personal 
injury,  nor  did  doubt  of  their  good  affection  towards  him, 
yet  he  was  much  grieved  that  Boston  should  be  the  first 
who  should  shake  off  their  magistrates,  especially  Mr. 
Coddington,  who  had  been  always  so  forward  for  their 
enlargement."  -^  The  people,  on  a  sober  second  thought, 
saw  their  proceeding  in  the  same  light,  and  corrected  it 
by  a  new  election.  It  is  probably  owing  to  this  reconsid- 
eration that  the  richer  and  the  poorer  sort  have  now  the 
joint  enjoyment  of  the  beautiful  park  still  called  Boston 
Common. 

Another  transaction  touched  him  more  nearly.  The 
General  Court,  which  had  chosen  Dudley  to  supersede 
him,  had  appointed  a  committee  "  to  receive  his  account  of 
such  things  as  he  had  received  and  disbursed  for  pub- 
lic use."      He  presented  it  at  the  next  General 

^  Sept.  4. 

Court,  which,  agreeably  to  the  new  regulation, 
was  held  within  the  following  four  months.  He  would 
have  "  rested  satisfied "  with  his  disbursements  for  the 
public,  he  says  in  that  dignified  paper,  "but  that,  being 
called  to  account,"  he  was  compelled  to  mention  them. 
After  showing  them  to  have  exceeded  his  receipts  by  more 
than  a  thousand  pounds,  "  It  repenteth  me  not,"  he  pro- 
ceeded, "  of  my  cost  or  labor  bestowed  in  the  service  of 

1  Winthrop,  I.  152. 


880  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

this  Commonwealth,  but  do  heartily  bless  the  Lord  our 
God,  that  he  hath  pleased  to  honor  me  so  far  as  to  call 
for  anything  he  hath  bestowed  upon  me  for  the  service  of 
his  Church  and  people  here,  the  prosperity  whereof  and 
his  gracious  acceptance  shall  be  an  abundant  recompense 
to  me.  I  conclude  with  this  one  request,  which  in  justice 
may  not  be  denied  me,  that,  as  it  stands  upon  record  that 
upon  the  discharge  of  my  office  I  was  called  to  account, 
so  this  my  declaration  may  be  recorded  also ;  lest  here- 
after, when  I  shall  be  forgotten,  some  blemish  may  lie 
upon  my  posterity,  when  there  shall  be  nothing  to  clear 
it."  ^     And  on  the  record  it  stands,  accordingly. 

For  half  a  century,  down  to  the  abrogation  of  the  char- 
ter, the  only  changes  in  the  arrangements  respecting  the 
legislature  now  constituted,  were  its  division  into  two 
branches,  sitting  apart,  with  a  negative  each  upon  the 
other,  and  the  practice  of  two  annual  sessions  instead  of 
four.^  The  Magistrates  were  chosen  by  joint  vote  of  the 
freemen  of  the  Colony.  The  Deputies  were  elected  by 
the  freemen  of  their  respective  towns.      The   treatment 

of  that  remarkable  peculiarity  in  the  social  con- 
Towns.  ,  .  . 

dition  of  New  England  which  is  presented  in 
its  municipal   system,   belongs    to    another   part  of  this 
work.     What  is  appropriate  here  is  to  call  attention  to 
its  early  origin.     The  name  toivii  first  occurs  in  the  rec- 
1C30.      ord  of  the  second  colonial  meeting  of  the  Court 
Sept.  7.    q£  Assistants,  in  connection  with  the  naming  of 
Boston,  Charlestown,  and  Watcrtown.      The  assessment, 
in  the  same  month,  of  fifty  pounds,  in  prescribed  propor- 
tions, to  be  "collected  and  levied  by  distress  out 

Sept.  28.  ... 

of  the  several  plantations,"^  implies  some  organi- 
zation within  each  plantation  for  apportioning  its  share 
of  the  assessment  among  its  inhabitants.     In  the  follow- 
1C31.      ing  spring,  "every  town  within  this  patent"  was 
March 22.    ^'cquired  to  "provide  its  inhabitants  with  arms,"^ 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  1.30  -  132.  3  Mass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  75,  77. 

2  Sec  below,  p.  431.  *  Ibid.,  Si. 


Chap.  IX]  MASSACHUSETTS.  381 

a  requisition  which  also  supposes  some  arrangement  in 
each  for  corporate  action  within  itself.     A  rude  pattern  of 
a  frame  of  town  government  was  shaped  by  Dor-      1^33. 
Chester,  when,  in  place  of  the  earlier  practice  of    ^"^  ^• 
transacting  business  at  meetings  of  the  whole  body  of  its 
freemen  (the  grants  of  lands  being  certified  by  a  committee 
consisting  of  the  clergymen  and  deacons),  it  designated  cer- 
tain inhabitants,  twelve  in  number,  to  meet  weekly,  and 
consult   and    determine    upon    public   affairs,  —  without 
any  authority,    however,   beyond   other  inhabitants   who 
should  choose  to  come  and  take  part  in  their  consulta- 
tions and  votes.^     About  the  same  time,  at  Watertown, 
it  was  "  agreed  by  the  consent  of  the  freemen,  that  there 
should  be  three  persons  chosen  for  the  ordering  of  the  civil 
affairs."  ~     In  the  fourth  year  from  the  settlement  of  Bos- 
ton, at  which  time  the  earliest  extant  records  were      1634. 
made,  three  persons  were  chosen  "  to  make  up  the     '^"='  ^* 
ten  to  manage  the  affairs  of  the  town."  ^     The  system  of 
delegated  town  action  was  there  perhaps  the  same     JC35. 
which  was  defined  in  an  "  Order  made  by  the  in-    ^"^^  ^^■ 
habitants  of  Charlestown,  at  a  full  meeting,  for  the  govern- 
ment of  the  town  by  Selectmen,'"'^  —  the  name  presently 
extended  throughout  New  England  to  the  municipal  gov- 
ernors.    That  order  was  as  follows :  "  In  consideration  of 
the  great  trouble  and  charge  of  the  inhabitants  of  Charles- 
town  by  reason  of  the  frequent  meeting  of  the  townsmen 
in   general,  and   that,  by  reason  of  many  men  meeting, 
things  were  not  so  easily  brought  into  a  joint  issue;  it  is 
therefore  agreed  by  the  said  townsmen  jointly,  that  these 
eleven  men  whose  names  are  written  on  the  other  side 
(with  the  advice  of  pastor  and  teacher  desired  in  any  case 
of  conscience)  shall  entreat  of  all  such  business  as  shall 

^  Clapp,  History  of  Dorchester,  32.  ^  Drake,  History  and  Antiquities  of 

2  Bond,  Genealogies,  &c.  of  Water-  Boston,  174,  note  f. 
town,  II.   995.  —  The  precise  date  of        ^  Frothlngham,  History  of  Charles- 

this  vote  is  not  preserved,  but  it  was  at  town,  50. 
least  as  early  as  1634. 


382  HISTORY  OF  new  England.  [Book  i. 

coiicem  the  townsmen,  the  choice  of  officers  excepted  ;  and 
what  they  or  the  greater  part  of  them  shall  conclude  of, 
the  rest  of  the  town  willingly  to  submit  unto  as  their 
own  proper  act,  and  these  eleven  to  continue  in  this  em- 
ployment for  one  year  next  ensuing  the  date  hereof." 

The  orders,  passed  at  the  important  assembly  of  the 
freemen  whose  proceedings  for  reform  have  been  de- 
scribed, to  the  effect  "  that  every  town  should  be  at 
liberty  to  make  such  orders  about  swine  as  they  should 
judge  best,"  and  that,  "in  all  rates  and  public  charges,"-' 
the  towns  should  levy  on  their  inhabitants,  are  natural 
expressions  of  the  desire  to  avoid  consolidation,  and  to 
vindicate  the  importance  of  the  municipal  democracies. 
The  form  of  their  government,  which,  dictated  by  ob- 
vious convenience,  came  easily  into  use,  was  presently 
1636.  recognized  by  the  General  Court,^  with  proper 
March 3.  pi-Qvisious  for  its  efficiency  and  limitation;  and 
so  became  permanent,  receiving  from  time  to  time  ex- 
tensions and  amendments  fit  to  accommodate  it  to  the 
public  needs  and  convenience.  The  towns  have  been,  on 
the  one  hand,  separate  governments,  and,  on  the  other, 
the  separate  constituents  of  a  common  government.  In 
Massachusetts,  for  two  centuries  and  a  quarter,  the  Depu- 
'ties  in  the  General  Court  —  or  Rejjrescntatives,  as  they 
have  been  named  under  the  State  Constitution  —  contin- 
ued to  represent  the  municipal  corporations.  In  New 
Hampshire,  Vermont,  Connecticut,  and  Rhode  Island,  that 
basis  of  representation  still  subsists.  Maine,  at  its  sepa- 
ration from  the  parent  State,  substituted  the  Dis- 
trict system,  involving  a  union  of  small  towns  for 
the  choice  of  a  Eepresentative ;  so  as  to  proportion  repre- 
sentation more  strictly  to  numbers. 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec,  1.  119,  120.  fore,  at  Tvliich,  among  other  things,  it 

2  Perhaps  this  action  is  to  be  traced  had  been  agi-eed  "  that  trivial  things, 
to  an  iinofTicial  fonfcrencc  of  some  &c.  should  be  ended  in  towns."  (Win- 
ma"istrates  and  ministers  six  weeks  be-  throp,  I.  178.) 


CHAPTEE  X. 

Four  years  had  now  passed  since  the  arrival  of  Win- 
throp's  company  in  Massachusetts  Bay.  The  worst  hard- 
ships of  a  new  plantation  had  been  outlived.  The  infant 
society  had  been  organized  into  coherence,  symmetry,  and 
a  capacity  of  self-preservation  and  growth.  The  emigra- 
tion had  been  recently  renewed,  and  between  three  and 
four  thousand  Englishmen  were  distributed  among  twenty 
hamlets  along  and  near  the  sea-shore. 

They  were  settling  into  such  employments  as  their  sit- 
uation dictated.     They  cultivated  the  ground,  and  took 
care  of   herds    and   flocks.^      They  hunted  and      ]C34. 
fished  for  a  part  of  their  food.     They  were  build-  condition  of 

i  •'  the  settlers 

ino^  houses,  boats,  and  mills ;  enclosing  land  with  »» ^'^ssa- 

„  1         '       •  11  1         ^  r  cliusetts. 

fences ;  and  cutting  roads  through  the  lorest  to 
connect  their  towns.  Their  exports  of  cured  fish,  furs,  and 
lumber  bought  them  articles  of  convenience  and  luxury 
in  England,  and  they  were  soon  to  build  ships  to  be  sold 
abroad.  The  customs  of  daily  life  were  taking  the  new 
shapes  impressed  upon  them  by  the  strangeness  of  a  con- 
dition so  novel,  and  the  course  of  public  administration 
was  beginning  to  be  made  regular  by  precedents. 

The  freemen  of  the  Company  were  now  about  three 
hundred  and  fifty  in  number.^     More  than  two  thirds  of 

1  "  For  four  thousand  souls  there  are  Col.  Eec,  I.  366  -  369.)  Allowing  for 
fifteen  hundred  head  of  cattle,  besides  deaths  on  the  one  hand,  and  for  the  im- 
four  thousand  goats,  and  swine  innu-  migration  of  persons  who  had  been  ad- 
merable."  (^Vood,  New  England's  mitted  to  the  franchise  in  England  on 
Prospect,  49.)  the  other,  the  number  of  three  hundred 

2  Three  hundred  and  forty-six  free-  and  fifty  in  May,  1634,  cannot  be  far 
men  had  been  admitted  in  Massachusetts  from  the  truth. 

before    the   summer  of   1634.      (Mass. 


3S4:  HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

them  had  been  admitted  to  the  franchise  since  the  estab- 
Freemen and  Hshmcnt  of  thc  rcligious  test,  and  a  majority  of 
Magistrates,  ^^le  rcsiduo  wcre  also  members  of  churches.  As 
}et,  all  the  Magistrates  were  persons  who  had  first  been 
appointed  in  England,  with  the  exception  of  Haynes,  and 
John  Winthrop  the  younger,  the  Governor  s  son.  Not  a 
few  others  of  thc  freemen,  from  both  position  and  char- 
acter, had  good  pretensions  to  be  admitted  to  the  body 
charged  with  the  executive  and  judicial  administration ; 
but,  though  the  charter  authorized  the  choice  of  twenty 
Magistrates,  for  several  years  only  about  half  as  many 
were  elected,  the  vacancies  being  kept  for  the  men  of 
rank  who  were  expected  to  come  over. 

The  clergy,  now  thirteen  or  fourteen  in  number,  consti- 
tuted in  some  sort  a  separate  estate  of  special  dignity.^ 
Though  they  were  excluded  from  secular  office. 

Clergy.  .,,.,,.  .    . 

the  relation  of  their  functions  to  the  spirit  and 
aim  of  the  community  which  had  been  founded,  as  well 
as  their  personal  weight  of  ability  and  character,  gave 
great  authority  to  their  advice.  Nearly  all  were  gradu- 
ates of  Oxford  or  Cambridge,  and  had  held  livings  in  the 
Established  Church  of  England.  Several  had  been  emi- 
nent among  their  fellows  for  all  professional  endowments. 
It  is  impossible  to  estimate  too  highly  the  strength  of 
that  devotion  to  liberty,  civil  and  religious,  which  induced 
men  and  women,  tenderly  bred,  used  to  comfort  and  abun- 
dance, and  in  a  condition  still  to  command  them,  to  leave 
home  and  kindred,  and  every  attraction  of  dignified  and 
luxurious  life,  and  become  the  pioneers  of  a  new  society 
in  a  distant  and  rude  wilderness.  In  justice  to  the  great 
body  of  the  emigrants,  another  fact  should  be  remembered. 
There  was  no  economical  distress  in  England  to  prompt 

1  "Wilson  and  Cotton  were  ministers  Phillips,    of    Watcrtown  ;     James,    of 

of  Boston ;   Skelton  and    Williams,  of  Charlestown ;   and  Batchelor,  of  Sau- 

Salem  ;    Warham    and    ^laverick,    of  gus.     William  Leverich  came  over  in 

Dorchester;  Welde  and  Eliot,  of  Rox-  October,  1G33,  but  was  not  jet  exer- 

bury ;  Hooker  and  Stone,  of  Newtown ;  cising  the  clerical  office. 


Chap.  X.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  385 

the  enterprise  of  colonization.  There  had  never  been  a 
time  when  English  subjects  might  live  so  tran-  j^j^j^^.;^, 
quilly  and  prosperously,  if  they  would  but  con-  prosperity  of 
sent  to  resign  liberty  of  thought  and  speech. 
"  This  kingdom,"  says  Lord  Clarendon,  "  enjoyed  the 
greatest  calm,  and  the  fullest  measure  of  felicity,  that 
any  people,  in  any  age,  for  so  long  a  time  together,  have 
been  blessed  with,  to  the  wonder  and  envy  of  all  the 
other  parts  of  Christendom."  ^  And  Hume  draws  the 
same  picture  of  the  visible  face  of  affairs :  "  The  griev- 
ances under  which  the  English  labored,  when  consid- 
ered in  themselves,  without  regard  to  the  constitution, 
scarcely  deserve  the  name Peace,  industry,  com- 
merce, opulence,  nay,  even  justice  and  lenity  of  adminis- 
tration (notwithstanding  some  very  few  exceptions),  all 
these  were  enjoyed  by  the  people,  and  every  blessing  of 
government,  except  liberty,  or  rather  the  present  exercise 
of  liberty,  and  its  proper  security."  ^ 

But  there  was  a  portion  of  the  people  incapable  of  har- 
boring so  un-English  a  thought  as  that  of  selling  their 
self-respect  for  an  easy  life.  ^Peace,  opulence,  and  a  lenient 
administration  of  government,  even  had  it  been  more  le- 
nient than  it  was,  could  not  satisfy  them,  without  "  the 
present  exercise  of  liberty,"  and  its  proper  securities  for 
themselves,  their  country,  and  posterity ;  nor  could  they 
endure  a  government  which  forbade  what  they  considered 
as  belonging  to  the  character  of  a  good  Christian./  The 
general  prosperity  and  comfort  of  their  condition  dis- 
play and  enhance  the  merit  of  their  willingness  to  sub- 
mit to  enormous  sacrifices  of  external  well-being,  rather 
than  to  the  loss  of  those  rights  of  the  mind,  of  which  re- 
flecting and  religious  minds  perceive  the  incomparable 
worth.  The  experience  of  all  ages  shows,  that,  in  times  of 
ease  and  affluence,  public  virtue  is  least  firm,  encroach- 
ments of  arbitrary  rule  are  easiest  made,  and  the  resistance 

•  History  of  the  Gieat  Eebellion,  Chap.  I.  2  History  of  England,  Chap.  LIL 

VOL.  I.  33 


386  HISTORY   OF  NEW   ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

of  patriots  is  most  discouraged  and  embarrassed.  And  if 
men  like  Clarendon  and  Hume  —  men  certainly  not  with- 
out humanity,  however  biassed  by  false  theories  —  could 
see  in  the  material  prosperity  of  England  a  balance  for 
the  forfeiture  of  more  ideal  blessings,  a  judgment  differ- 
ent from  theirs  will  award  especial  honor  to  the  wisdom 
and  determination  of  those  prosperous  Englishmen,  who 
refused  to  put  quiet  and  abundance  in  the  scale  against 
possessions  estimable  only  by  reason,  sentiment,  and  con- 
science. 

The  difficulties  of  their  undertaking  were  by  no  means 
yet  over.  The  freedom  which  they  had  attained  by  heroic 
sacrifice,  they  had  now  to  secure  by  practical  wisdom. 
Its  permanence  was  exposed  to  two  dangers.  It  was 
threatened  by  the  hostility  of  thq  English  government, 
and  by  dissensions  in  the  new  communityy  And  in  cir- 
cumstances likely  to  occur,  each  of  these  dangers  would 
increase  the  other. 

Of  the  reality  and  nearness  of  the  former,  the  colonists 
had  had  warning  in  the  recent  complaints  against  them  to 
the  Privy  Council.  In  those  proceedings  they  had  been 
charged  with  an  ambition  to  be  independent  of  the  parent 
country;^  and  already  there  were  not  wanting  facts  to 
give  a  color  of  truth  to  the  charge,  and  such  facts  could 
not  fail  to  accumulate  in  future.  Wliatever  may  be 
Independent  tliouglit  of  tlic  plaus  aud  hopcs  entertained  by 
cesl'ity'f,"r''  Wiuthrop  aud  his  coadjutors  before  they  left  their 
the  colonists,  jjomc,  ccrtalu  it  is  that  an  essential  independence 
forced  itself  upon  them  in  the  place  of  their  retreat.  The 
responsibility  of  a  government  presently  cast  itself  upon 
their  shoulders.  They  had  a  large  number  of  associates 
to  protect  by  the  exercise  of  all  the  functions  of  foreign 
and  domestic  administration.  They  had  Indians  to  look 
after  within  their  borders,  and  Indians,  French,  and  Dutch 

^  See  above,  pp.  3G4,  370. — "It  was     of  the  povcrci^n  mncri^trate."    (Gorges, 
doubted   tlioy  -would,  in  a  short  time,     Briefe  Narration,  Chap.  XXVI.) 
wholly  shake  olF  the  royal  jurisdiction 


Chap.  X.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  387 

without.  They  could  not  wait  till  they  could  send  to 
England,  and  get  authority  from  a  Secretary  of  State, 
likely  to  be  too  busy  with  other  matters  to  give  them 
his  attention,  before  they  should  hang  a  murderer,  or  de- 
fend a  town  against  an  inroad  of  savages.  If  it  was  indis- 
pensable for  such  offices  to  be  performed,  they  could  not 
suffer  themselves  to  be  disabled  from  performing  them, 
either  by  direct  opposition  to  their  government,  or  by 
interference  with  their  arrangements  for  organizing  the 
requisite  authority  and  force.  And  while,  on  the  one 
hand,  every  exercise  of  power  in  this  direction  w^ould 
confirm  in  them  the  habit,  and  stimulate  the  feeling,  of 
independence,  it  would,  on  the  other,  be  a  new  occasion 
of  distrust  on  the  part  of  the  government  at  home. 

Annoyance  from  the  home  government  was  therefore 
to  be  expected  by  the  colonists.  For  protection  against  it 
they  were  to  look  to  their  charter,  as  long  as  the  grants 
in  that  instrument  should  continue  to  be  respected. 
Against  internal  dissensions,  they  had  an  easy  remedy. 
The  freemen  of  the  Massachusetts  Company  had  a  right, 
in  equity  and  in  law,  to  expel  from  their  territory  all  per- 
sons who  should  give  them  trouble.  In  their  corporate 
capacity,  they  were  owners  of  Massachusetts  in  fee,  by  a 
title  to  all  intents  as  good  as  that  by  which  any  freeholder 
among  them  had  held  his  English  farm.  As  pomicai 
ao^ainst  all  Europeans,  whether  Eui^lish  or  Conti-  '■'shtsofthe 

<-j  i-  o  freemen  of 

nental,  they  owned  it  by  a  grant  from  the  crown  of  wassachu- 
England,  to  which,  by  well-settled  law,  the  dispo- 
sal of  it  belonged,  in  consequence  of  its  discovery  by  an 
English  subject.  In  respect  to  any  adverse  claim  on  the 
part  of  the  natives,  they  had  either  found  the  land  un- 
occupied, or  had  become  possessed  of  it  with  the  con- 
sent of  its  earlier  proprietors.  For  the  purpose  of  being 
at  liberty  to  follow  their  own  judgment  and  inclination  in 
respect  to  matters  regarded  by  them  with  the  profoundest 
interest,  they  had  submitted  to  an  abandonment  of  their 


388  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

homes,  and  to  the  extreme  hardships  incident  to  settle- 
ment in  a  distant  wilderness.  They  thought  they  had 
acquired  an  absolute  right  to  the  unmolested  enjoyment 
of  what  had  cost  them  so  dear.  Having  withdrawn  across 
an  ocean,  to  escape  from  the  interference  of  others  with 
their  own  management  of  their  own  affairs,  they  conceived 
that  they  were  entitled  to  protect  themselves  from  such 
interference  for  the  future  by  the  exclusion  of  disturbing 
intruders  from  their  wild  domain.  And  that  privilege 
they  regarded  as  further  assured  to  them  by  the  letter  of 
English  law  ;  for  the  royal  charter,  under  which  they 
held,  gave  them  express  power  to  "  expulse  all  such  per- 
son and  persons  as  should  at  any  time  attempt  or  enter- 
prise detriment  or  annoyance  to  their  plantation  or  its 
inhabitants."  In  this,  as  in  other  respects,  their  charter 
was  their  Palladium.  To  lose  it  would  be  ruin.  What- 
ever might  imperil  their  possession  of  it,  required  to  be 
watched  by  them  with  the  most  jealous  caution. 

Accordingly,  the  associate  who  could  sympathize  with 
them,  and  join  his  hand  with  theirs  in  building  up  the  new 
institutions  in  church  and  state,  was  welcome.  Whoever 
had  views  and  objects  so  different  from  theirs,  that  his 
presence  among  them  would  be  an  occasion  of  weakness 
or  of  strife,  had,  in  their  judgment,  no  claim  to  fasten 
himself  upon  them.  It  would  be  better  for  both  parties 
that  he  should  establish  himself,  with  others  like-minded, 
in  some  solitude  of  his  own,  as  they  had  done.  It  would 
be  no  hardship  to  him  to  be  refused  a  home  on  soil  only 
as  yet  begun  to  be  redeemed  from  the  wildness  of  nature. 
There  was  no  want  of  vacant  spots,  and  those  close  at 
hand,  at  least  as  attractive  as  that  which  they  had  chosen. 
At  all  events,  having  paid  so  dearly  for  quiet,  they  claimed 
its  unobstructed  enjoyment.  Their  poor  home  was  their 
own ;  no  one  had  rights  there  but  themselves ;  it  was  for 
them  to  judge  in  what  cases  hospitality  would  be  consistent 
with  security  and  quiet.    The  right  of  self-preservation,  for 


Chap.  X.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  389 

commonwealths  as  for  individuals,  involves  almost  unlim- 
ited immunities.  In  both,  an  excessive  caution  may  dic- 
tate needlessly  rigid  measures  of  defence;  but,  when  the 
life  of  either  seems  in  peril,  the  privilege  of  counteraction 
is  large  enough  to  justify  severer  measures  than  the  mere 
removal  of  an  assailant  from  the  place  where  the  danger 
of  his  presence  has  been  disclosed. 

However  distasteful  to  the  Magistrates  the  action  of  the 
fifth  General  Court  had  for  the  moment  been,  they  found 
reason  to  rejoice  in  it  before  the  next  four  years  were 
passed.     A  suspended  question  of  power  between  them 
and  the  freemen,   with  its   attendant  disputes  and  jeal- 
ousies, would  have  disabled  both  parties  for  the  action 
which  events  were  about  to  require ;  and  the  extension  of 
the  responsibility  of  government  to  a  considerable  number 
of  persons,  with  a  great  interest  in  common,  and  capacity 
to  understand  it,  proved  to  be  an  opportune  element  of 
strength.     The  Court  had  scarcely  been  dissolved,  when 
tidings  came  from  England  of  a  nature  to  impress      ie34. 
the  minds  of  the  rulers  in  Massachusetts,  more  i.nporfant 
seriously  than  ever  before,  with  a  sense  of  the  f^ol^nKngr 
magnitude  of  the  task  they  had  undertaken.  ^*'"*' 

On  the  one  hand,  new  cause  for  encouragement  ap- 
peared. Mr.  Humphrey,  who  came  over  with  a  quantity 
of  arms  and  ammunition,  presented  by  friends  of  the  Col- 
ony in  England,  reported  that  "  godly  people  began  noAv 
to  apprehend  a  special  hand  of  God  in  raising  this  plan- 
tation, and  their  hearts  were  generally  stirred  to  come 
over."  Intelligence  to  the  same  effect  came  from  Scottish 
settlers  in  the  North  of  Ireland ;  and  "  Mr.  Humphrey 
brought  certain  propositions  from  some  persons  of  great 
quality  and  estate,  and  of  special  note  for  piety,  whereby 
they  discovered  their  intentions  to  join  the  Colony,  if  they 
misfht  receive  satisfaction  therein."  ^     The  Earl  of  War- 

1  Wintlirop,  I.  135;  comp.  172. —     by  Hutchinson  in  liis  History  (I.  433), 

Tiiesc    "propositions"    wera   i)iil)!isliL'J     under  tlie  title  of  "  Certain   Proposals 
33* 


390 


HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 


[Book  I. 


wick,  in  a  letter  to  Winthrop,  "  congratulated  the  pros- 
perity of  the  plantation,  eneouraged  their  proceedings,  and 
offered  his  help."  -^ 

On  the  other  hand,  Mr.  Humphrey  brought  tidings  of 


made  by  Lord  Say,  Lord  Brooke,  and 
other  persons  of  quality,  as  conditions  of 
their  removing  to  New  England."  The 
jjrojjosals  are  there  accompanied  by  the 
answers  to  each,  which,  from  a  letter  of 
Cotton  to  Lord  Say  and  Sele,  appear  to 
have  been  sent  in  1636.  The  document 
m  extremely  curious  on  many  accounts, 
and  not  least  so  for  the  relation  which 
it  bears  to  the  opinion  I  have  offered 
respecting  a  vision,  in  the  minds  of  the 
Puritan  leaders,  of  a  renovated  Eng- 
land in  America.  (See  above,  p.  308.) 
The  Proposals  contemplated  a  govern- 
ment by  two  houses  of  legislature,  each 
with  a  negative  on  the  other,  the  first 
to  consist  of  an  hereditary  peerage. 
Divested  of  some  of  their  details,  they 
■were  to  this  effect:  "That  the  com- 
monwealth should  consist  of  two  dis- 
tinct ranks  of  men,  whereof  the  one 
should  be,  for  them  and  their  heirs, 
gentlemen  of  the  country;  the  other, 
for  them  and  their  heirs,  freeholders"; 
"that  the  Governor  should  ever  be  chosen 
out  of  the  rank  of  gentlemen";  "that, 
for  the  present,  the  Eight  Honorable 
the  Lord  Viscount  Say  and  Sele,  the 
Lord  Brooke,  who  had  already  been 
at  great  dislnirscments  for  the  public 
works  in  New  England,  and  such  other 
gentlemen  of  approved  sincerity  and 
worth  as  they,  before  their  personal  re- 
move, should  take  into  their  number, 
should  be  admitted,  for  them  and  their 
heirs,  gentlemen  of  the  country ;  but, 
for  the  future,  none  should  be  admitted 
into  this  rank  but  by  the  consent  of 
both  Houses";  "  that  the  rank  of  free- 
holdei-s  should  be  made  up  of  such  as 
should  have  so  much  personal  there  as 
should  be  thought  fit  for  men  of  that 
condition,  and  have  contributed  some  fit 


proportion  to  the  public  charge  of  the 
country,  either  by  their  disbursements 
or  labors." 

To  comply  with  such  "  proposals"  was 
impossible.  To  lose  such  friends  as  had 
made  them  would  have  been  a  great 
misfortune.  It  was  a  misfortune  at  all 
events  to  be  postponed ;  and  the  An- 
swers, it  seems,  were  deferred  nearly 
two  years.  These  Answers  arc  a  model 
for  address,  but  the  paper  is  too  long  to 
copy  here.  To  the  Proposal  of  the  lords 
for  themselves  and  their  heirs  to  be  legis- 
lators in  New  England,  the  Answer  is : 
"  The  great  disbursements  of  these  noble 
personages  and  worthy  gentlemen  we 

thankfully  acknowledge But, 

though  that  charge  had  never  been 
disbursed,  the  worth  of  the  honorable 
persons  named  is  so  well  known  to  all, 
and  our  need  of  such  supports  and 
guides  is  so  sensible  to  ourselves,  that 
we  do  not  doubt  the  country  would 
thankfully  accept  it,  as  a  singular  favor 
from  God  and  from  them,  ii"  he  should 
bow  their  hearts  to  come  into  this  wil- 
derness and  help  us When 

God  blesseth  any  branch  of  any  noble 
or  generous  family  with  a  spirit  and 
gifts  fit  for  government,  it  would  be 
a  taking  of  God's  name  in  vain  to  put 
such  a  talent  under  a  bushel,  and  a  sin 
against  the  honor  of  magistracy  to  neg- 
lect such  in  our  public  elections.  But. 
if  God  should  not  delight  to  furnish 
some  of  their  posterity  with  gifts  fit 
for  magistracy,  we  should  expose  them 
rather  to  reproach  and  prejudice,  and 
the  commonwealth  with  them,  than  ex- 
alt them  to  honor,  if  we  should  call 
them  forth,  when  God  doth  not,  to 
public  authority." 

1  Winthrop,  L  137. 


Chap.  X.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  391 

serious  danger  impending  from  abroad.  The  jealousy  of 
the  royal  government,  carried  on  for  the  last  five  years  with- 
out a  Parliament,  and  growing  every  day  more  despotic  in 
church  and  state,  had  been  revealed  in  the  Order 

Feb.  21. 

of  the  Privy  Council  to  detain  ten  vessels  about  to 
sail  from  London  with  passengers  for  New  England.^    The 
attempts  against  the  charter,  baffled  a  year  before,  were  re-  ^ 
newed,  and  an  order  had  been  obtained  from  the  Lords  of 
Council  for  its  production  at  their  board.^     The  alarm  in 
Massachusetts  reached  its  height  when  intelligence  came  of 
a  design  to  send  out  a  General  Governor,^  and  of  the  crea-- 
tion  of  a  special  commission  for  the  management    ^prii  lo. 
of  all  the  colonies  and  for  the  revocation  of  their  <^"'""'^' 

commission, 

charters,  with  Laud,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  at  andrecaiiof 
its  head.  Mr.  Cradock  transmitted  a  copy  of  the 
Order  of  Council  requiring  the  production  of  the  patent. 
For  the  present  the  Magistrates  simply  replied,  that  they 
had  no  power  to  do  anything  of  the  kind  without  the 
direction  of  the  General  Court,  which  would  not  meet  for 
two  months.    They  sent  letters,  "  to  mediate  their 

,,  "^  July. 

peace,"  by  Mr.  Winslow,  on  whose  personal  agency 
it  may  be  presumed  that  they  also  placed  reliance. 

There  is  no  matter  of  surprise  in  the  vigorous  assault 
now  made  upon  the  charter  of  Massachusetts  by  the  coun- 
sellors of  King  Charles.  The  difficult  questions  Poiicyofthe 
are,  how  it  came  to  be  originally  granted,  and 
why,  when  assailed  only  a  year  before  the  pres- 
ent hostile  movements,  it  had  been  treated  with  so  much 
favor.^  Considering  the  character  of  the  king  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  provisions  of  the  charter  on  the  other,  it 
seems  necessary  to  conclude,  either  that  its  tenor  was  not 
well  known  to  him  when  it  received  his  assent,  or  else 

1  See  above,  pp.  370,  371.  Morton  to  "Mr.  Jeffery,  an  old  plant- 

2  AVinthrop,  I.  135.  —  The  Order  is  er,"  who  carried  it  to  the   Governor, 
in  Hazard,  I.  341.  (Winthrop,  I.  138.) 

3  This  news  came  in  the  first  week         ^  Ibid.,  137. 

of  August,  in   a  letter  from  Thomas        ^  See  above,  pp.  3G4,  305. 


court  in  rela- 
liun  to  Mas- 
sacliusetts. 


392  HISTORY  OF  new  England.  [book  i. 

that  his  purpose  in  granting  it  was  to  encourage  the  de- 
parture of  Puritans  from  England,  at  the  time  when  he 
was  entering  upon  measures  which  might  bring  on  a  dan- 
gerous conflict  with  that  party.  The  former  supposition 
is  scarcely  to  be  reconciled  with  what  appears  to  be  a  well- 
authenticated  fact,  that  the  charter  was  procured  through 
the  intervention  of  that  vigilant  courtier  and  sensitive 
churchman,  Lord  Dorchester/  The  latter  supposition 
derives  some  plausibility  from  the  tortuous  policy  of  the 
king,  a  policy  to  which  his  experienced  diplomatist  was 
in  no  wise  averse. 

The  charter  of  the  Massachusetts  Company  had  passed 
the  seals  almost  simultaneously  with  the  king's  annuncia- 
tion, after  an  exciting  controversy  with  three  Parliaments, 
of  his  purpose  to  govern  without  Parliaments  in  future.  It 
might  well  appear  to  him,  that,  in  the  contests  which  per- 
haps were  to  follow,  his  task  would  be  made  easier  if 
numbers  of  the  patriots  could  be  tempted  to  absent  them- 
selves from  the  kingdom ;  and  when  he  should  ha^se  suc- 
ceeded, and  the  laws  and  liberties  of  England  should  be 
stricken  down,  there  would  be  nothing  in  his  past  grants 
to  embarrass  him  in  his  treatment  of  the  exiles,  and  his 
arm  would  be  long  enough  to  reach  and  strong  enough 
to  crush  them  in  their  distant  hiding-place.  Or,  if  no 
scheme  so  definite  as  this  was  entertained,  the  grant  of 
the  charter,  inviting  attention  to  a  distant  object,  might 
do  something  for  his  present  relief,  by  breaking  up  the 
dangerous  concentration  of  the  thoughts  of  the  Puritans 
on  the  state  of  affairs  at  home." 

^  Sec  in  Chalmers's  "  Annals"  (117)  having  brouglit  English  versification  to 

"the  docket  of  the  grant,"  as  preserved  its  modern  refinement,  wrote  a  masque 

in  the  Privy-Seal  Office.  —  Lord  Dor-  entitled  "  Crelum  Britannicum,"  which 

Chester  was  the  Sir  Dudley  Carleton  was  performed  at  Whitehall,  February 

who,  in  the  capa<nty  of  King  James's  18,  1633,  the  king  himself  taking  a  part 

ambassador,   had  worried  lirewster  in  in  it.    Momus,  one  of  the  speakers,  pro- 

theXctlicrlands.  See  above, p.  141,  note,  poses   to  transport   the  Vices  to  New 

2  Tliomas  Carcw,  whose  name  con-  England  :  "  I  shoulii  conceive  it  a  very 

tests  with  that  of  ^Vallcr  the  praise  of    discreet  course to  embark  them 


Chap.  X.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  393. 

Whatever  was  the  king's  design  in  granting  the  char- 
ter, nothing  occurred  to  change  his  course  of  action  in 
respect  to  it  for  the  next  four  years.  Within  that  time 
there  had  been  only  one  large  emigration;  and,  if  he 
heard  anything  of  the  Colony,  he  must  have  heard  that  it 
seemed  languishing.  There  was  therefore  no  motive  to  lay 
a  heavy  hand  on  it ;  and  accordingly  the  complaint  of  Ma- 
son and  others  at  the  end  of  the  fourth  year  was  carelessly 
dismissed.  In  the  fifth  year,  things  took  a  different  turn. 
Eight  or  nine  hundred  Englishmen  went  to  Massachu- 
setts, some  of  them  important  men.  The  Colony  had  got 
through  its  first  difficulties,  and  was  vigorous.  If  the 
king  and  his  Archbishop  had  heard  of  all  that  it  had  been 
doing,  they  knew  that  its  progress  could  not  be  stopped 
too  soon  for  their  advantage.  On  the  other  hand,  Charles 
seemed  to  have  surmounted  the  first  difficulties  of  his 
career  as  an  absolute  monarch.  More  than  five  years  had 
passed  of  government  without  a  Parliament,  and  England 
was  not  yet  in  arms.  Subservient  courts  of  justice,  and 
the  parasites  about  his  person,  may  well  have  persuaded 
him  that  England  was  at  his  feet.  He  had  just  come 
from  his  coronation  in  Scotland,  elated  with  his  loyal  re- 
ception in  the  dominion  of  his  fathers.  The  Star  Cham- 
ber was  in  unopposed  activity.  Laud  had  just  been  made 
the  first  clergyman,  peer,  and  counsellor  of  the  realm ; 
and  Laud,  at  the  ear  of  his  sovereign,  was  not  a  man  to 
forget  the  claims  of  the  Church,  or  to  postpone  the  harsh 
exercise  of  power.  We  may  find  it  hard  to  satisfy  our- 
selves of  the  reason  for  granting  the  charter  of  Massachu- 
setts Bay ;  but,  as  to  the  causes  of  the  early  proceedings 
for  its  destruction,  there  is  no  perplexity. 

all  together  in  that  good  ship  called  the  bodies  of  this   kingdom."     (Chalmers, 

Argo,  and  send  them  to  the  plantation  English  Poets,  V.  629.)     Considering 

in  New   England,  which  hath  purged  the  intimate  relations  of  Carew  to  the 

more   virulent  humors  from   the  politic  court,  this  may  fairlv  be  interpreted  as 

body,  than  guaiacum  and  all  the  West-  an  indication  of  the  supposed  policy  of 

Indian  dru2;s  have  from   the  material  the  king. 


394  msTORY  OF  new  England.  [Book  i. 

The  General  Court  of  Magistrates  and  Deputies  came 
together,  and  on  their  table  lay  a  copy  of  the  instrument 
which  gave  power  to  eleven  courtiers  to  ruin  them  and 
theirs.  The  Commissioners  were  found  to  be  the  two 
Archbishops,  six  lay  peers,  and  three  other  high  function- 
aries. They,  or  any  five  of  them,  were  invested  with 
"  power  of  protection  and  government "  over  all  English 
colonies.  They  had  authority  "  to  make  laws,  orders,  and 
constitutions";  to  provide  for  the  maintenance  of  a  cler- 
gy "  by  tithes,  oblations,  and  other  profits  " ;  "  to  inflict 
punishment, cither  by  imprisonment  or  other  re- 
straints, or  by  loss  of  life  or  members  " ;  to  remove  and 
appoint  governors  and  other  officers ;  to  establish  eccle- 
siastical courts ;  to  hear  and  determine  complaints,  "  either 

against  the  whole  colonies, or  any  private  member 

thereof,"  and  for  that  purj^ose  "  to  summon  the  persons 
before  them "  ;  and  finally,  to  call  in  all  letters-patent, 
and,  if  any  were  found  to  convey  privileges  hurtful  to  the 
"  crown  or  prerogative  royal,"  to  cause  them  to  be  legally 
revoked.^ 

Since  the  tidings  came  from  England  of  the  alarming 
measures  in  train,  the  members  of  the  Court  had  had  time 
for  conference  with  their  neighbors,  and  were  probably 
well  agreed  as  to  what  business  they  should  transact.  A 
determined  spirit  does  not  closely  calculate  resources.  It 
easily  believes  that  the  way  will  appear,  when  the  will 

Sept.  3.  is  constant.  The  first  orders  adopted  were  for 
ofurceT  the  erection  of  fortifications  on  Castle  Island  in 
crai  Court.  i^Qstou  liarbor,  and  at  Charlestown  and  Dorches- 
ter. Next  the  captains  were  authorized  "  to  train  unskil- 
ful men  so  often  as  they  pleased,  provided  they  exceeded 
not  three  days  in  a  week."  Dudley,  Winthrop,  Ilaynes, 
Humphrey,  and  Endicott  w-ere  appointed  "  to  consult,  di- 
rect, and  give  command  for  the  managing  and  ordering 
of  any  war  that  might  befall  for  the  space  of  a  year  next 

1  The  commission  is  in  Hazard,  I.  344. 


Chap.  X.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  395 

ensuing,  and  till  further  order  should  be  taken  therein." 
Arrangements  were  made  for  the  collection  and  custody  of 
arms  and  ammunition.  Then  various  small  matters  of  com- 
mon legislation  were  despatched  as  usual.  Swine,  weirs, 
ordinaries,  and  ferries  were  regulated ;  the  public  use  of 
tobacco,  and  the  making,  buying,  and  wearing  of  "  slashed 
clothes,"  were  forbidden  ;  and,  after  appointing  "  a  day  of 
public  humiliation  throughout  the  several  plantations," 
the  General  Court  adjourned.^  During  the  winter,  no  new 
alarm  came  from  abroad.  The  ministers  were  in-  1535, 
vited  by  the  Governor  and  Assistants  to  a  consul-  •'''"•  ^^• 
tation  at  Boston  on  the  existing  state  of  affairs.  All  came 
but  one,  Mr.  Ward,  who  was  lately  arrived ;  and  the 
unanimous  advice  of  those  present  was :  "  If  a  General 
Governor  were  sent,  we  ought  not  to  accept  him,  but  de- 
fend our  lawful  possessions,  if  we  were  able;  otherwise 
to  avoid  or  protract."  ^  It  might  prove  that  the  king  of 
England  was  able  to  coerce  these  people  by  force ;  to  co- 
erce them  by  intimidation  was  beyond  his  power. 

The  great  subject  of  anxiety  presented  itself  again  at 
the  next  General  Court.     An  order  was  passed, 

Marcli  4, 

"  that  the  fort  at  Castle  Island,  now  begun,  shall 
be  fully  perfected,  the  ordinances  mounted,  and  every 
other  thing  about  it  finished";  and  the  Deputy-Governor, 
who  had  it  in  charge,  was  empowered  "  to  press  men  for 
that  work."^  By  another  vote,  it  was  directed  "that  there 
should  be  forthwith  a  beacon  set  on  the  sentry  hill  at  Bos- 
ton, to  give  notice  to  the  country  of  any  danger, 

and  that,  upon  the  discovery  of  any  danger,  the  beacon 
should  be  fired."  To  secure  a  supply  of  musket-balls, 
they  were  made  a  legal  tender  for  payments,  at  the  rate  of 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  123-128.  ure.     (Winthrop,  I.   137.)      Maverick 

2  Winthrop,  I.  154.  was  directed  to  remove  from  his  island, 

3  "  The  Governor  and  Council,  and  which  was  opposite  to  Castle  Island, 
divers  of  the  ministers  and  others,"  had  into  the  town.  (Mass.  Col.  Rec,  I. 
just  before  made  a  reconnoissance  of  140.)  This  must  have  been  on  account 
Castle  Island,  with  a  view  to  this  meas-  of  his  doubtful  loj'alty  to  the  Colony. 


396  HISTORY  OF  new  England.  [Book  i. 

a  farthing  apiece,  instead  of  the  coin,  the  circulation  of 
which  was  forbidden.  Further  rules  were  made  for  the 
enforcement  of  a  strict  military  discipline  ;  and  the  "  Free- 
man's Oath  "  of  fidelity  to  the  local  government  was  re- 
quired to  be  taken  fey  every  man  "  resident  within  the 
jurisdiction,"  and  being  "  of  or  above  the  age  of  sixteen 
years."  Finally,  a  military  commission  was  established 
with  extraordinary  powers.  The  Magistrates  and  Mr. 
Bellingham  were  the  commissioners.  They  were  author- 
ized "to  dispose  of  all  military  affairs  whatsoever";  "to 
ordain  and  remove  all  military  officers  " ;  "  to  do  whatso- 
ever might  be  behooveful  for  the  good  of  the  plantation,  in 
case  of  any  war  that  might  befall";  "  to  imprison  or  con- 
fine any  that  they  should  judge  to  be  enemies  to  the  com- 
mouAvealth  ;  and  such  as  would  not  come  under  command 
or  restraint,  as  they  should  be  required,  it  should  be  lawful 
for  the  commissioners  to  put  such  persons  to  death."  -^ 

The  demand  from  England  for  a  transmission  of  the 
charter  had  received  no  other  notice  from  the  General 
Court  than  what  these  proceedings  imply.  The  govern- 
ment of  Charles  the  First  was  pressed  with  too  much 
business  to  follow  up  a  policy  of  consistent  vigor  against 
the  contumacious  Colony.     But  the  Lords  Commissioners 

made  the  provisional  experiment  of  an  Order  pro- 
December.      ... 

hibiting  the  emigration  of  all  persons  of  the  degree 
of  "  a  subsidy  man"  without  a  special  license,  and  of  all  per- 
sons beneath  tliat  degree  without  evidence  of  their  having 
taken  the  oaths  of  supremacy  and  allegiance,  and  of  their 
"  conformity  to  the  orders  of  discipline  of  the  Church  of 
England." "  This  was  while  another  measure  of  better 
promise  was  in  train.  As  fiir  as  the  Order  took  effect, 
it  would  enfeeble  the  resistance  of  the  Massachusetts  Com- 
pany, now  doomed  to  be  overthrown  by  an  abuse  of  law. 
The  Council  for  New  England,  having  struggled  through 
nearly  fifteen  years  of  maladministration  and  ill-luck,  had 

1  Mass.  Col.  llec.  I.  135-143.  2  The  Order  Is  in  Hazard,  I.  347. 


Chap.  X.] 


MASSACHUSETTS. 


397 


yielded  to  the  discouragements  which  beset  it.     By  the 
royal  favor,  it  had  triumphed  over  the  rival  Vir-  Dissolution 
ginia  Company,  to  be  overwhelmed  in  its  turn  by  "[i  for  nIw' 
the  just  jealousy  of  Parliament,  and  by  dissen-  J^"g'a"c'- 
sions  among  its  members.   The  Council,  having,  by  profuse 
and  inconsistent  grants  of  its  lands,^  exhausted  its  com- 


1  The  following  is  a  list  of  grants 
made,  or  alleged  to  have  been  made, 
by  the  Council  for  New  England,  be- 
fore the  final  partition. 

1621.  June  1.  To  John  Pierce,  of 
lands  at  Plymouth.  For  the  particulars 
of  this  transaction,  see  above,  p.  194. 

1621.  To  Sir  William  Alexander,  of 
the  peninsula  of  Nova  Scotia.  This 
grant  was  confirmed  by  a  royal  charter 
of  September  10  of  the  same  year. 
See  above,  p.  234. 

1622.  March  9.  To  Captain  John 
Mason,  of  a  tract,  called  Mariana,  ex- 
tending from  Naumkeag  to  the  river 
Merrimack.      See  above,  pp.  204,  205. 

1622.  April  20.  To  John  Pierce, 
of  the  lands  of  the  Plymouth  planters. 
See  above,  p.  209. 

1622.  May  31.  Patents  were  or- 
dered "  to  be  drawn  for  the  Earl  of 
Warwick  and  his  associates."  Tliis 
transaction  I  understand  to  have  be- 
longed to  the  partition  of  the  territory 
from  the  Bay  of  Fundy  to  Narragan- 
sett  Bay  among  twenty  associates.  See 
above,  pp.  222,  285. 

1622.  August  10.  To  Gorges  and 
Mason,  o^  Laconia,  extending  along  the 
coast  from  the  Merrimack  to  the  Ken- 
nebec.    See  above,  p.  205. 

1622.  November  16.  "  To  Mr. 
Thompson  "  (Journal  of  the  Council  for 
New  England).  This  may  well  have  been 
David  Thompson,  afterwards  resident  on 
the  Piscataqua  and  in  Boston  harbor. 

To  the  same  year  must  be  referred 
the  patent  to  Thomas  Weston,  by  virtue 
of  which  he  attempted  the  plantation  at 
Wessagusset.     See  above,  p.  199. 

1622.     December  30.      To  Robert 

VOL.  I.  34 


Gorges,  of  lands  on  Boston  Bay.  See 
above,  p.  206. 

1623.  To  Ferdinando  Gorges  (grand- 
son of  Sir  Ferdinando)  and  Colonel  Nor- 
ton, of  twenty-four  thousand  acres,  at 
Agamenticus.     See  Gorges,  Ch.  XXV. 

1625.  If  Wollaston  had  a  patent,  it 
belongs  to  this  or  an  earlier  year.  See 
above,  p.  222. 

1627.  To  the  Plymouth  people,  of 
lands  on  the  Kennebec.  See  above, 
p.   230. 

1628.  March  19.  To  Sir  Henry 
Roswell  and  his  five  associates,  of  the 
tract  between  the  Merrimack  and  the 
Charles,  and  three  miles  bej'ond  each 
liver.     See  above,  p.  288. 

1629.  Nov.  7.  To  John  Mason,  of 
New  Hampshire,  from  the  Piscataqua  to 
the  Merrimack.     See  Hazard,  I.  291. 

1630.  January  13.  To  the  Ply- 
mouth Colony,  of  the  lands  occupied  by 
it,  and  of  lands  on  the  Kennebec.  See 
above,  p.  332. 

1630.  February  12.  To  Thomas 
Lewis,  Elchard  Boaj'thon,  Richard 
Vines,  and  John  Oldham,  of  lands  on 
Saco  River. 

1630.  March  13.  To  John  Beau- 
champ,  of  London,  and  Thomas  Lever- 
ett,  of  Boston,  of  a  tract  of  a  hundred 
square  leagues  to  the  west  of  Penobscot 
Bay.  This  commonly  goes  by  the  name 
of  the  Muscongus  or  the  Waldo  Patent, 
the  latter  being  the  name  of  a  subse- 
quent purchaser. 

To  the  same  year  belongs  the  Lygonia 
or  Plough  Patent,  of  sixteen  hundred 
square  miles  between  Cape  Porpus  and 
Cape  Elizabeth,  to  John  Dy  and  others. 

1631.  March  12.     To  Edward  Hil- 


398 


HISTORY   OF  KEW   ENGLAND. 


[Book  T. 


mon  property,  as  well  as  its  credit  with  purchasers  for 
keeping  its  engagements,  had  no  motive  to  continue  its 
oriranization.  Under  these  circumstances,  it  determined 
on  a  resignation  of  its  charter  to  the  king,^  and  a  surren- 


ton,  of  a  tract  Inchuling  the  present 
towns  of  Dover,  Durham,  and  Stratham, 
•with  part  of  Newington  and  Greenland, 
in  New  Hampshire. 

1G31.  November  1.  To  Thomas 
Cammock,  of  lands  now  included  in 
the  town  of  Scarborough,  in  Maine. 

1G31.  November  3.  To  Gorges 
and  Mason,  and  their  associates,  Henry 
(Gardner,  George  Griffith,  and  Thomas 
Eyer,  of  lands  on  the  Piscataqua. 

1C31.  December  1.  To  Robert 
Trelawny  and  JMoses  Goodyeare,  mer- 
chants of  Plymouth,  of  lands  bounded 
on  the  east  by  those  of  Cammock. 

To  this  or  to  an  earlier  year  must  be 
referred  the  patent  to  the  Earl  of  War- 
wick which  was  the  foundation  of  his 
grant,  March  19,  1632,  to  Lord  Say 
and  Sele  and  others,  of  the  lands  of 
Connecticut.     See  Hazard,  I.  3 18. 

1G3'2.  February  29.  To  Robert 
Aldsworth  and  Giles  Elbridge,  mer- 
chants of  Bristol,  of  twelve  thousand 
acres  (with  certain  rights  of  extension), 
constituting  the  Pomaquid  Patent. 

1G33.  December  G.  The  Council 
confirmed  a  partition  of  lands  made 
among  themselves  by  the  patentees  of 
November  3,  1G31. 

The  irregular  manner  of  transacting 
the  business  of  the  Council  is  apparent. 
Nor,  in  the  defective  state  of  the  evi- 
dence, is  it  possible  to  say  that  this  enu- 
meration of  alleged  grants  is  complete, 
or  otherwise  exact.  Shirley  wrote  to 
the  Plymouth  people  in  1C29  (Mass. 
Hi.st.  Coll.,  HI.  71),  "I  am  persuaded 
Sir  Ferdinando  (how  loving  and  friend- 
ly soever  he  seems  to  be)  knows  he 
can,  nay,  purposes  to,  overtlirow,  at  his 
pleasure,  all  the  patents  he  grants." 
They  could  not  all  have  stood  together. 


1  The  reader  may  find  in  Hazard 
(I.  390-394)  the  "Declaration  of  the 
Council  for  New  England  for  the  Resig- 
nation of  the  Great  Charter,  and  the  Rea- 
sons moving  them  thereto,"  adopted  April 
25,  1G35,  in  a  meeting  "at  the  Earl  of 
Carlisle's  chamber  at  Whitehall " ;  their 
Petition  to  the  king  for  patents  to  the 
members  to  hold  their  lands  in  several- 
ty (]\Iay  1)  ;  and  their  Act  of  Surren- 
der of  the  Gi-eat  Charter  of  New  Eng- 
land to  his  Majesty  (June  7).  The 
Declaration  recites,  as  reasons  for  the 
surrender,  the  great  expenses  which 
had  been  incurred,  attended  with  loss 
of  "  near  friends  and  faithful  servants  " ; 
the  intrigues  and  vexations  of  the  rival 
Company  of  Virginia,  which  King  James 
had  not  been  able  to  correct ;  and,  above 
all,  the  interference  of  the  charter  of 
the  Massachusetts  Company,  which  is 
alleged  to  have  been  "  surreptitiously 
gotten,"  in  derogation  of  the  rights  of 
Captain  Robert  Gorges  and  others. 
The  Council  made  its  contribution  to 
the  aims  of  the  king  and  the  Arch- 
bishop by  representing,  that  the  IMassa- 
chusetts  colonists  "  made  themselves  a 
free  people,  and  for  such  hold  of  them- 
selves at  present,"  and  that  there  was 
no  way  to  reduce  them  except  "  for  his 
Majesty  to  take  the  whole  business  into 
his  own  hands." 

I  referred  above  (p.  193,  note)  to  a 
copy,  in  the  State-Paper  Office  in  Lon- 
don, of  a  portion  of  the  Journal  of  the 
Council  for  New  England,  embracing 
the  period  from  November,  1G31,  to 
November,  1G38.  It  preserves  inter- 
esting particulars  connected  with  the 
dissolution  of  that  body. 

At  the  time  of  the  adoption  of  the 
"  Declaration,"  Lord  Gorges  Avas  Presi- 


CriAP.  X.] 


MASSACHUSETTS. 


399 


der  of  the  administration  of  its  domain  to  a  General  Gov- 
ernor of  his  appointment,  on  the  condition  that  all  the  ter- 
ritory, a  large  portion  of  which  by  its  corporate  action  had 


dent  of  the  Council,  having  been  elect- 
ed a  week  before,  April  18, 1G35.  John 
Mason  had  been  Vice-President  two 
years  and  a  half,  since  a  few  months 
after  the  appearance  of  a  dispute  with 
the  Earl  of  Warwick.  Probably  the 
key  to  the  state  of  parties  in  the  Coun- 
cil at  this  time  would  be  found  in  the 
d.lTerences  of  sentiment  as  to  the  ten- 
dency of  affairs  in  Massachusetts. 

"  A  meeting  at  Warwick  House  in 
Ilolborn,"  June  29th,  1632,  was  the  sec- 
ond from  which  Lord  AVarwick  was 
absent,  of  those  registered  in  the  extant 
portion  of  the  Journal  of  this  period. 
There  was  evidently  some  disagreement 
with  him.  "  The  Lord  Great  Chamber- 
lain and  the  rest  of  the  Council  now 
present  sent  their  clerk  unto  the  Earl 
of  Warwick  for  the  Council's  great  seal, 
it  being  in  his  Lordship's  keeping.  His 
Lordship's  answer  was,  that,  as  soon  as 
his  man  W^illiams  came  in,  he  should 
bring  it  unto  them."  And  "  it  was  now 
agreed  that  the  place  of  meeting  for  the 
Council  of  New  England  shall  be  here- 
after at  Cajjtain  JMason's  house  in  Fen- 
church  Street,"  instead  of  Warwick 
House,  as  it  had  hitherto  been.  At  the 
second  meeting  before  this,  dissatisfac- 
tion had  been  expressed  with  a  warrant 
given  by  Lord  Warwick  and  Lord 
Arundel  to  one  Ashley,  "  for  his  going 
into  New  England  and  being  assisted 
there."  Ashley  was,  I  suppose,  the  same 
person  who  became  associated  with  Al- 
lerton  and  the  Plymouth  people  in 
their  trade  to  the  Penobscot  (see 
above,  p.  337).  Lord  Warwick's  name 
does  not  appear  at  any  subsequent 
meeting  of  the  Council  till  the  last  of 
those  recorded. 

November  6,  1632,  "It  was  ordered 
that  the  Council's  great  seal,  which  now 
reraaineth   in   the  Earl  of  Warwick's 


hands,  should  be  called  for,  that  so  it 
might  be  ready  for  sealing  of  patents, 
as  there  should  be  cause."  At  the  same 
meeting  it  was  determined,  "  that  a  new 
patent  from  his  INIajesty  be  obtained," 
and  that  Lord  Baltimore's  patent  should 
be  examined  as  a  model.  And  "  cei^ 
tain  propositions  were  read  and  pro- 
pounded concerning  New  England's 
affairs,  as  things  necessary  for  the 
Council  to  take  into  present  considera- 
tion, which  were  as  followeth,  viz. :  that 
the  number  of  the  Committee  be  with 
all  convenient  speed  filled ;  that  all  pa- 
tents formerly  granted  be  called  for  and 
perused,  and  afterwards  confirmed,  if 
the  Council  see  it  fit;  that  no  ships, 
passengers,  or  goods  be  permitted  to  be 
transported  for  New  England,  without 
license  from  the  President  and  Council, 
or  their  deputy  or  deputies ;  that  fish- 
ermen be  not  pennitted  to  trade  with 
salvages,  nor  the  servants  of  planters, 
nor  to  cut  timber  for  their  ships,  with- 
out license  ;  that  letters  from  his  Majes- 
ty to  the  lords  of  shires,  for  setting  forth 
their  poorer  sort  of  people  to  New  Eng- 
land, be  procured ;  that  a  surveyor 
speedily  be  sent  over  for  settling  the 
limits  of  every  plantation  according  to 
the  patent;  also,  commissioners  to  be 
sent  over  to  bear  and  determine  all 
differences,  and  relieve  all  grievances 
there,  if  they  can  ;  if  not,  to  certify  the 
President  and  Council  here  in  whom 
the  fault  is,  that  speedy  order  for  re- 
dress may  be  taken."  Finally,  "  the 
Dutch  plantation  "  was  "  to  be  consid- 
ered of" 

November  26,  1632.  "  Li  regard  the 
Company's  great  seal  remained  in  the 
Earl  of  Warwick's  hands,  the  Lord 
Great  Chamberlain  was  entreated  to 
move  the  said  Earl  of  Warwick  effectu- 
ally for  the  delivery  of  it  unto  Sir  Fer- 


400 


HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 


[Book  I. 


already  been  alienated  to  other  parties,  should  be  granted 
in  severalty  by  the  king  to  the  members  of  the  Council. 
Twelve  associates  accordingly  proceeded  to  a  distribution 


dinantlo  Gorges,  in  whose  hands  it 
ought  to  remain;  also  Sir  Ferdinando 
Gorges  promised  to  desire  the  Lord 
]\Iarshal  to  join  with  the  Lord  Great 
Chamberlain  in  showing  the  Earl  of 
AVarwick  the  necessity  of  having  the 
seal  delivered  fortliwith."  "  Captain 
John  Mason  was  this  meeting  chosen 
Vice-President."  This,  I  suppose,  was 
an  arrangement  for  having,  in  the  un- 
satisfactory relations  to  Lord  Warwick, 
a  leader  of  the  opposite  party  perma- 
nently in  the  chair  in  the  President's 
absence. 

June  2C,  163-p-.  Mr.  Humphrey  this 
day  complained  to  the  President  and 
Council  for  not  permitting  shijis  and 
passengers  to  pass  from  hence  for  the 
Bay  of  Massachusetts,  without  license 
first  had  from  the  President  and  Coun- 
cil or  their  deputy,  tliey  being  free  to 
go  thither  and  to  transport  passengers, 
not  only  by  a  patent  granted  unto  them 
by  the  President  and  Council  of  New 
England,  but  also  by  a  confirmation 
thereof  by  his  ]\Iajesty,  under  his  Ma- 
jesty's great  seal.  Hereupon  some  of 
the  Council  desired  to  see  the  patent 
which  they  had  obtained  from  the  Gov- 
ernor and  Council,  because,  as  they  al- 
leged, it  pre-indicted  former  grants. 
Mr.  Humphrey  answered,  that  the  said 
patent  was  now  in  New  England,  and 
that  they  had  oftentimes  written  for  it 
to  be  sent,  but  as  yet  they  had  not  re- 
ceived it." 

February  3,  1635,  "At  a  meeting 
at  the  Lord  Gorgcs's  house,  [at  which 
were  present  the  ^Marquis  of  Hamilton, 
the  Earl  of  Arundel  and  Surrey,  the 
Earl  of  Carlisle,  the  Earl  of  Sterling, 
Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges,  and  Captain 
John  ^lason,] was  an  agree- 
ment made  for  the  several  divisions 
upon  the  sea-coast  of   New  England," 


to  take  effect  simultaneously  with  the 
surrender  of  the  charter.  And  an  entry 
in  these  words  is  annexed :  "  Mem.  The 
18th  day  of  April  following,  leases  for 
three  thousand  years  were  made  of  the 
several  divisions  to  several  persons  in- 
trusted, for  their  benefits."  —  For  the 
grant  made  to  Mason,  conformably  to 
this  agreement,  see  Hubbard's  History, 
Chap.  XXXL  This  clause  occurs  in 
it:  "in  whose  presence,  February  3, 
1G34  [1G35  by  change  of  style],  lots 
were  drawn  for  settling  of  divers  and 
sundry  divisions  of  lands."  The  learned 
editor  of  the  second  edition  of  Hubbard 
considers  the  words  in  iv/tose  presence 
to  refer  to  King  James,  who  is  men- 
tioned in  the  next  preceding  clause; 
and  as  that  monarch  died  nine  years 
before  1634,  the  editor  has  thought  it 
necessary  to  change  the  date,  and  has 
accordingly  altered  it  to  1G24,  so  as  to 
identify  the  partition  spoken  of  with 
that  by  which  Lord  Sheffield  obtained 
his  title  to  Cape  Ann  (see  above,  pp. 
2-22,285).  But,  1.  the  partition  to  which 
I^ord  Shefheld  was  a  party  took  place, 
not  in  1624,  but  in  1622;  2.  in  the 
manuscript  of  Hubbard,  the  date  1634 
is  twice  very  plainly  written,  once  in 
the  text,  and  once  in  the  margin.  The 
mere  construction  of  the  sentence  would 
naturally  refer  the  wonls  in  ichose  pres- 
ence to  the  king.  But,  in  view  of  the 
facts,  I  think  there  can  be  no  doubt 
about  referring  them  to  "the  Council 
of  New  England,"  who  are  mentioned 
just  before  the  mention  of  the  king. 
In  the  "  Declaration,"  a  partition  (that 
of  1622)  is  spoken  of  as  having  taken 
place  "  in  his  late  Majesty's  presence  " 
(Hazard,  I.  391)  ;  but  from  this  use  of 
the  phrase  in  one  case  in  reference  to 
the  king,  no  inference  whatever  can  be 
drawn,  that  in  the  other  case  also  the 


Chap.  X.] 


MASSACHUSETTS. 


401 


of  New  England  among  themselves  by  lot ;  and  nothing 
was  wantmg  to  render  the  transaction  complete,  and  to 
transfer  to  them  the  ownership  of  that  region,  except  to 


reference  must  be  to  him.  Lots  might 
be  as  fitly  drawn  in  the  Council's  pi-es- 
ence  as  in  his.  The  question  is  mate- 
rial, because  the  proposed  emendation 
of  Hubbard's  text  would  unsettle  the  im- 
portant date  of  that  distribution  of  the 
country,  in  which  Lord  Sheffield,  and 
through  him  the  Plymouth  people,  had 
a  part. 

April  26,  1635.  "  At  a  meeting  at 
the  Earl  of  Carlisle's  chambei-s  at  AVhite- 
hall."  "  The  Marquis  Hamilton,  being 
in  physic,  sent  word  to  this  meeting  by 
John  Winnington,  that  he  would  agree 
to  whatever  they  should  resolve  on." 
They  resolved  on  a  petition  praying  for 
eejiarate  patents  according  to  their 
agreement,  and  they  listened  to  a 
"  Declaration "  from  the  king  respect- 
ing a  General  Governor,  of  Avhich  the 
following  was  part.  "  Forasmuch  as  we 
have  understood  and  been  credibly  in- 
formed of  the  many  inconveniences  and 
mischiefs  that  have  grown  and  are  like 
more  and  more  to  arise  among  our  sub- 
jects already  planted  in  the  parts  of 
New  England,  by  reason  of  the  several 
opinions  and  differing  humors  springing 
up  between  them,  and  daily  likely  to 

increase, we  have  resolved  with 

ourself  to  empower  our  servant.  Sir 
Ferdinando  Gorges,  as  well  for  that  our 
gracious  father  of  blessed  memory  as 
we  have  had  of  long  time  good  expe- 
rience of  his  fidelity,  circumspection, 
and  knowledge  of  his  government  in 
martial  affairs  and  civil,  besides  his  un- 
derstanding of  the  state  of  those  coun- 
tries, wherein  he  hath  been  an  imme- 
diate mover,  and  a  principal  actor,  to 
the  great  prejudice  of  his  estate,  long 
troubles,  and  the  loss  of  many  of  his 
good  friends  and  servants." 

May  5,  1635.  "Thomas  Morton  [I 
suppose,  of  Merry  IMount]  is  now  enter- 
34* 


tained  to  be  Solicitor  for  confirmation 
of  the  said  deeds  under  the  great  seal, 
as  also  to  prosecute  suit  at  law  for  the 
repealing  of  the  patent  belonging  to  the 
Massachusetts  Company  ;  and  is  to 
have  for  fee  twenty  shillings  a  term, 
and  such  further  reward  as  those  who 
are  interested  in  the  affairs  of  New 
England  shall  think  him  fit  to  deserve 
upon  the  judgment  given  in  the  cause." 

November  26,  1635.  Orders  were 
made  for  the  passing  of  the  particular 
patents,  "  to  be  expedited  with  all  con- 
veniency "  ;  for  an  apphcation  to  the 
Attorney-General  "to  agree  upon  the 
liberties  thereof,  to  be  obtained  of  his 
Majesty";  and  for  a  petition  for  allow- 
ance to  be  made  "  for  the  maintenance 
and  supportation  of  the  Governor  in 
such  estate  as  might  sort  with  the  honor 
thereunto  belonging." 

From  this  day  it  appears  that  the 
meetings  of  the  Council  ceased  for  a 
time.  Yet  it  was  not  formally  dis- 
solved ;  for  there  is  a  record  of  two  later 
meetings,  held  March  22  and  November 
1,  1638.  In  the  last  record,  the  place 
usually  filled  with  the  names  of  the 
members  present  is  blank,  except  that 
the  Earl  of  Warwick  is  recorded  to 
have  been  present  as  President,  and 
Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges  as  Treasurer. 
The  last  entry  is,  "  It  is  likewise  agreed, 
that  the  Lord  Goi-ges  and  Sir  Ferdi- 
nando Gorges  shall  either  of  them 
have  sixty  miles  more  added  to  their 
proportions  further  up  into  the  main- 
land." 

Among  the  manuscripts  in  the  State- 
Pajjer  Office  entitled  Ainerica  and  West 
Indies,  is  here  and  there  a  document 
not  without  interest  in  connection  with 
this  course  of  events.  March  21,  1635, 
Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges,  in  anticipation 
of  his   appointment    to   be   Governor- 


402 


HISTORY   or  NEW  ENGLAND. 


[Book  I. 


oust  the  previous  patentees,  of  whom  the  most  powerful 
body  were  colonists  in  Massachusetts  Bay.^ 

To  effect  this,  Sir  John  Banks,  Attorney-General,  brought 

a  writ  of  quo  ivarranto  in  Westminster  Hall  against  the 

1635       Massachusetts    Company.       Sir   Henry    Roswell, 

September,  gjj,  JqIiu  Youuf]^,  aucl  twclve  others  of  the  origi- 

Quo  warranto  o  O 

against  the     nal  assoclatcs,  "  came  in  and  pleaded  that "  they 

Company  of  .,,.,. 

Massacim-     "  hau  uever  usurped  any  the  said  liberties,  priv- 

aj.      iipgQs^  r^ji(j  franchises  in  the  information,  nor  did 

use  or  claim  any  of  the  same  "  ;   and  judgment  was  given 


General,  wrote  to  Secretary  Winde- 
bank,  urging  upon  the  Privy  Council 
the  importance  of  prompt  action  for  a 
repeal  of  the  Massachusetts  charter,  and 
of  giving  him  authority  for  a  temporary 
administration  of  part  of  his  duties  by 
deputy.  —  October  1  of  the  same  year. 
Secretary  "Windcbank  conveyed  to  Sir 
Henry  JSIartin,  Judge  of  the  Admiralty 
Court,  the  king's  pleasure  "  that  Cap- 
tain John  Mason,  Treasurer  to  his  Ma- 
jesty's late  armies,  shall  be  Vice-Admiral 
of  New  England  in  America,"  from  the 
fortieth  to  the  forty-eighth  degree  of 
latitude ;  and  he  directed  a  patent  to  be 
drawn  accordingly.  —  The  following  is 
part  of  an  anonymous  letter  "  to  Mr. 
Comptroller,  from  New  England,"  of 
July  28,  16-36.  It  contains  the  first 
threat  I  have  seen  that  the  colonists 
would  remove  to  some  more  distant  place, 
in  case  they  were  disturbed  Avhere  they 
were :  "  TJie  conmion  report  is,  the  pa- 
tent is  damned ;  in  which  regard  much 
unsettlement  is  like  to  grow  amongst 
ourselves,  and  great  discouragement  to 
the  whole  plantation  ;  for  those  that  are 
truly  sincere  and  are  come  out  to  ad- 
vance the  kingdom  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
must  either  suffer  in  the  cause,  or  else 
labor  for  such  retreat  as  God  shall  di- 
rect them  to.  In  either  of  which  cases, 
I  do  not  doubt  but  that  witliin  two  years 
this  phmtation,  wjiich  is  now  flourishing, 
would  become  desolate,  and  either  pos- 


sessed again  with  Indians  or  emptied  by 
pestilence.  For  it  is  not  trade  that  God 
will  set  up  in  these  parts,  but  the  pro- 
fession of  his  truth,  and  therefore,  if 
God's  ends  be  not  followed,  man's  ends 
will  never  be  blessed  nor  attained." 

1  That  this  measure  was  taken  by 
the  Council  for  New  England  in  collu- 
sion with  the  court,  and  in  reference  to 
the  measures  in  progress  for  vacating 
the  charter  of  JNIassachusetts,  is  not  mat- 
ter of  conjecture  merely.  From  the 
petition  of  the  Council  for  New  Eng- 
land to  the  Privy  Council  (Hazard,  I. 
381)  relative  to  the  ^surrender,  it  ap- 
pears that  the  latter  body  had  pi-evious- 
ly  given  "  order  to  Sir  Ferdinando  Gor- 
ges to  confer  with  such  as  were  chiefly 
interested  in  the  plantations  of  New 
England,  to  resolve  Avhether  they  would 
resign  wholly  to  his  Majesty  the  patent 
of  New  England,"  &c.  —  It  is  not  known 
that  the  distribution  now  made  by  the 
Council  was  ever  confirmed  by  the  king 
in  any  other  instance  than  that  of  the 
grant  to  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges.  (See 
Chalmers,  Annals,  2!)9 ;  Hubbard,  in 
JNIass.  Hist.  Coll.,  XV.  232.)  Of  the 
pretended  confirmation,  by  the  king, 
of  the  grant  to  Mason,  the  Attorney- 
General  and  the  Solicitor-General,  Ry- 
der and  Murray,  said  in  1752,  "No 
such  charter  as  this  appears  upon  rec- 
ord." (Chalmers,  Opinions  of  Eminent 
Lawyers,  &c.,  I.  G2.) 


Chap.  X.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  403 

that  they  "  should  not  for  the  future  intermeddle  with 
any  the  liberties,  privileges,  or  franchises  aforesaid,  but 
should  be  for  ever  excluded  from  all  use  and  claim  of  the 
same  and  every  of  them."  Cradock,  the  former  Governor, 
made  default;  and,  in  his  case,  "judgment  was  given  that 
he  should  be  convicted  of  the  usurpation  charged  in  the 
information,  and  that  the  said  liberties,  privileges,  and 
franchises  should  be  taken  and  seized  into  the  king's 
hands,  the  said  Matthew  not  to  intermeddle  with  and  be 
excluded  the  use  thereof,  and  the  said  Matthew  to  be 
taken  to  answer  to  the  king  for  the  said  usurpation."  •■• 
Of  the  eleven  remaining  original  patentees,  Humphrey, 
Endicott,  Nowell,  Bellingham,  Pynchon,  and  William 
Vassall  were  then  in  New  England,  and  Johnson  had  died 
there. 

It  seemed  that,  when  a  few  more  forms  should  be 
gone  through,  all  would  be  over  with  the  presumptuous 
Colony.  In  the  view  of  English  law,  the  Englishmen 
who  had  gone  to  Massachusetts  had  no  rights  and  no 
property  there.  Divided  into  provinces,  Massachusetts 
belonged  to  Gorges,  Mason,  the  Marquis  of  Hamilton, 
and  whoever  else  had  won  by  lot  any  of  its  dismembered 
parts.  In  the  regular  course  of  proceeding,  nothing  re- 
mained but  for  the  local  government  voluntarily  to  abdi- 
cate, and  for  the  people  to  abandon  their  homes,  or  else  for 
the  king  to  send  out  his  Governor,  backed  by  a  sufficient 
force,  and  turn  over  the  land  to  its  new  masters.  But 
neither  of  these  things  took  place.  In  Massachusetts,  the 
whole  proceeding  was  a  nullity.  Everything  went  on,  as 
if  Westminster  Hall  had  not  spoken.  "  The  Lord  frus- 
trated their  design."  ^ 

1  The  writ  and  the  judorment  may  but  to  the  due  exercise  of  powers  ex- 
be  seen  in  Hazard  (I.  423-425),  and  in  pressly  given  by  the  charter;  so  that 
Hutchinson's  "  Collection  of  Original  the  complaint  against  the  Company 
Papers"  (101-104).  The  charges,  four-  rested  partly  upon  a  pretence  that  its 
teen  in  number,  relate,  not  only  to  the  charter  was  ah  initio  invalid, 
alleged  usurpation  and  abuse  of  powers,  2  Winthrop,  I.  161. 


404:  HISTORY   OF   NEW  ENGLAND.  [Eook  I. 

The  disorders  of  the  mother  country  were  a  safeguard 
of  the  infant  Hbcrty  of  New  England.  Laud  was  busy 
with  his  more  important  plan  of  prclatizing  the  Church 
of  Scotland,  England  was  in  a  rage  on  the  question 
of  ship-money.  An  unsuccessful  attempt  to  launch  a 
vessel  intended  to  bring  over  the  General  Governor,  and 
the  decease  at  this  juncture  of  John  Mason,  were  re- 
garded by  Winthrop  as  eminent  interpositions  of  God 
in  behalf  of  his  chosen  people.^  The  death  of  the  able 
and  energetic  Mason  was,  at  all  events,  a  great  relief  to 
the  leaders  of  affairs  in  Massachusetts.  As  a  principal 
member,  and  Secretary,  of  the  Council  for  New  England, 
and  as  holder  of  patents  with  which  the  Massachusetts 
charter  interfered,  he  had  been  mdefatigable  in  his  en- 
deavors for  the  annullins:  of  that  instrument.  Disaffected 
persons,  returning  from  the  Colony,  had  steadily  resorted 
to  him  as  the  standing  agent  of  their  revenge;  and,  with 
whatever  influence  he  could  exert,  he  had  promoted  the 
schemes  of  a  Commission  for  the  Plantations  and  of  a 
General  Governor.  Though  the  more  generous  Gorges 
lived  to  render  good  service  to  his  master  in  the  great 
civil  war,-  he  was  already  growing  old,  and  was  dispirited 
by  the  thirty  years'  ill-success  of  projects  which  had 
wasted  his  fortune  and  involved  him  in  infinite  discom- 

1  Winthrop,  I.  187.  —  "One  Ferdi-  fatal  danger,  nor  hath  since  suffered 
nando  Gorges  was  nominated  for  Gov-  them  as  yet  to  come  under  the  hke 
emor,  and  there  was  a  consultation  had  fear."  (Autobiography  and  Correspond- 
to  send  him  thither  with  a  thousand  sol-  ence  of  Sir  Siuiouds  D'Ewes,  Bart.,  II. 
diers;  a  ship  Avas  now  in  building  and  118.) 

near  finished  to  transport  him  by  sea,  ^  In  Bell's  "  IMemorials  of  the  Civil 

and  much  fear  there  was  amongst  the  War"  (I.  299)  is  an  interesting  letter 

godly   lest   that   infant   commonwealth  of  thanks  from  Gorges  to  Lord  Fairfax, 

and  church  should  have  been   ruined  dated  June  1,  1G4G.    This  was  after  he 

by  him ;  when  God,  that  had  carried  so  had  met  with  "  untimely  sufferances," 

many  weak  and  crazy  ships  thither,  so  being  taken  prisoner,  when  in  arms  for 

provided  it,  that  this  strong,  new-built  the   king.      lie   represents   himself  as 

ship  in  the  very  launching  fell  all  in  having  been  "  fearful  to  side  with  either 

pieces,  no  man  knew  how,  this  spring  party,  as  not  able  to  judge  of  so  trau- 

ensuing,  and  so  preserved  his  dear  chil-  scendeut  a  difference." 
drcn  there  at  this    present   from  that 


Chap.  X.] 


MASSACHUSETTS. 


405 


fort.  It  was  perhaps  owing  not  a  little  to  tlie  decay  of 
his  former  activity,  that  the  proceedings  under  the  quo 
warranto  against  the  Massachusetts  Company  proved  fruit- 
less. 

While  the  events  which  have  been  now  related  wore 
their  most  alarming  phase,  domestic  embarrassments  add- 
ed to  the  terrors  of  foreign  encroachment.  In  the  midst 
of  a  crisis  calling  for  all  the  energy  and  wisdom  of  the 
colonists  to  avert  the  ruin  that  seemed  to  impend,  a  char- 
acter prominent  in  New  England  history  interposed  by  a 
course  of  action  which  complicated  the  existing  difficulties. 

Roger  AVilliams,^  after  some  residence  at  the  University 


1  In  the  librar}''  of  Trinity  College, 
Cambridge,  are  six  original  letters  which 
passed  between  ]\Irs.  Sadleir,  daughter 
of  Sir  Edward  Coke,  and  Williams, 
when  the  latter  was  in  London  on  the 
business  of  his  plantation  in  1652.  He 
had  just  come,  he  says,  "  from  some  parts 
of  New  England,  with  some  addresses 
to  the  Parliament."  Prefixed  to  the 
letters  is  the  following  note  by  Mrs. 
Sadleir's  hand,  which  must  have  been 
written  after  the  Restoration. 

"  This  Roger  Williams,  when  he  was  a 
youth,  would  in  a  short  hand  take  ser- 
mons, and  speeches  in  the  Star  Cham- 
ber, and  present  them  to  my  dear  father. 
[Comp.  "  George  Fox  digged  out  of  his 
Burrowes,"  84.]  He,  seeing  him  so  hope- 
ful a  youth,  took  such  a  liking  to  him  that 

he  sent  him  to  Sutton's  Hospital 

Full  httle  did  he  think  that  he  would 
have  proved  such  a  rebel  to  God,  the 
king,  and  his  country.  I  leave  his  let- 
ters, that,  if  ever  he  has  the  face  to  re- 
turn unto  his  native  country,  Tyburn 
may  give  him  welcome."  In  Williams's 
first  letter,  he  says :  "  The  never-dying 
honor  and  respect  which  I  owe  to  that 
dear  and  honorable  root  and  his  branch- 
es   have  emboldened  me  once 

more  to  inquire,"  &c.  "  That  man  of 
honor  and  wisdom  and  piety,  your  dear 


father,  was  often  pleased  to  call  me  his 
son  ;  and  truly  it  was  as  bitter  as  death 
to  me,  when  Bishop  Laud  pursued  me 
out  of  this  land,  and  my  conscience  was 
persuaded  against  the  national  Church 
and  ceremonies  and  bishops  beyond  the 
conscience  of  your  dear  father,  —  I  say 
it  was  as  bitter  as  death  to  me,  when  I 
rode  Windsor  way  to  take  ship  at  Bris- 
towe,  and  saw  Stoke  House,  where  that 
blessed  man  was,  and  durst  not  acquaint 
him  with  my  conscience  and  my  flight." 
Professor  Elton's  researches  in  Eng- 
land have  ascertained  that  Williams  was 
a  native  of  the  county  of  Caermarthen, 
in  South  Wales,  and  that  he  was  entered 
as  a  pupil  at  Sutton's  Hospital  (the 
Charter  House),  June  25,  1621,  and  at 
Jesus  College,  Oxford,  April  30,  1624, 
being  then,  according  to  the  record, 
eighteen  years  old.  (Elton,  Life  of 
Roger  Williams,  9,  10.)  He  had  been 
understood  by  our  historians  to  be 
seven  years  older.  In  1673,  he  wrote, 
"  From  my  childhood,  now  above  three- 
score years."  ("  George  Fox  digged 
out  of  his  Burrowes,"  Pref.)  In  a  let- 
ter written  in  1679,  he  described  him- 
self as  "  near  to  fourscore  j'ears  of  age." 
(Backus,  History  of  New  England,  I. 
421.)  But  this  is  not  inappropriate 
language  for  a  man  of  seventy-three. 


406  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Booi  I. 

of  Oxford,  perhaps  under  the  patronage  of  Sir  Edward 
Coke,  is  believed  to  have  been  admitted  to  orders  in  the 
ji„g„  Established  Church.      He  had  subsequently  sepa- 

wiiiiams.      pated  himself  from  that  communion,  and,  sympa- 
thizing with  the  hopes  of  other  non-conformists,  had  ar- 
ic3i_      rived  at  Boston  the  next  year  after  the  transpor- 
^^^■^-     tation  of  the  charter,  being  then  probably  in  the 
twenty-fifth  year  of  his  age.     A  reputation  for  talents  and 
piety  had  preceded  him;   and  a  few  weeks  only  passed 
before  the  church  at  Salem  invited  him  to  succeed  Hig- 
frinson  as  their  teacher.^     He  had  made  the  most  of  his 
short   time  in  becoming  obnoxious   to  the  government; 
and  "  a  letter  was  written  from  the  Court  to  Mr. 

April  12. 

Endicott  to  this  effect,  that,  whereas  Mr.  Williams 
had  refused  to  join  with  the  congregation  at  Boston  be- 
cause they  would  not  make  public  declaration  of  their 
repentance  for  having  communion  with  the  churches  of 
England  while  they  lived  there,  and  besides  had  declared 
his  opinion  that  the  magistrate  might  not  punish  the 
breach  of  the  Sabbath,  nor  any  other  offence  as  it  was  a 
breach  of  the  first  table,  therefore  they  marvelled  they 
would  choose  him  without  advising  with  the  Council,  and 
withal  desiring  them  that  they  would  forbear  to  proceed 
till  they  had  conferred  about  it." " 

It  would  be  hard  to  denounce  these  objections  as  un- 

1  A  curious  letter  of  Roger  "Williams  them  to  be."    It  is  hard  to  suppose  that, 

to  John    Cotton,   of  Plymouth,   dated  when    "Williams    made   this  statement, 

"  Providence,     25    ]\Iarch,     1671     (so  (forty  years  after  the  transaction,  and 

called),"  has  just  come  to  lijxht  amonj];  -when  he  was  sixty-five  years  old,)  his 

the  papers  of  the  late  Dr.  Belknap,  and  memory   was   misled   by   his   imagina- 

is  now  in  the  possession  of  the  ]\Iassa-  tion.     But,  on  the  opposite  supposition, 

chusetts   Historical    Society,  by  whose  it  is  very  extraordinary  that  the  fact  is 

kind  permission  I  use  it.    In  it  "W^illiams  not   mentioned   in  any  record  of  the 

says,  "  In  New  [England]  being  un an i-  time.    Therecordsof  the  Boston  church 

moushj  chosen  teacher  at  Boston  (before  cannot  be  appealed  to  in  the  case.    The 

your  dear  father  came  divers  years),  only   entry   they   contain   previous   to 

I  conscientiously  refused  and  withdrew  Oclober,  10.32,  is  that  of  the  covenant 

to  Plymouth,  because  I  durst  not  ofTici-  of  clnirch-mcnibers. 
ate  to  an  unseparated  peo[)le,  as  upon         2  "Wiuthroj),  I.  53. 
examination   and   conference   1   I'ound 


Chap.  X.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  407 

reasonable,  judging  them  even  by  the  standard  of  the 
sentiments  and  practice  of  the  present  day.  To  assume 
at  once  an  attitude  of  opposition  to  th^  churches  which 
with  so  much  pains  had  been  followed  to  a  distant  coun- 
try, argued  an  eccentricity  unprom^jsing  of  usefulness  in 
the  pastoral  office,  as  well  as  of  the  exertion  of  a  harmo- 
nizing influence  in  the  new  society.  To  refuse  communion 
with  all  but  such  as  would  D^ake  proclamation  of  their 
repentance  for  having  formerly  partaken  the  elements  with 
communicants  of  the  Church  of  England,  was  to  occasion 
offence  at  once  superfluous,  and  dangerous  in  powerful 
quarters  at  home.  The  "  first  table "  of  the  Decalogue, 
consisting  of  the  first  four  precepts,  was  understood  to 
forbid  four  offences,  idolatry,  perjury,  blasphemy,  and 
Sabbath-breaking.  Of  these  the  last  two  stand  as  penal 
offences  on  the  statute-book  of  Massachusetts  at  the  pres- 
ent day ;  the  second,  there  is  no  government  that  does  not 
punish;  while,  in  the  judgment  of  the  age  and  the  place 
now  treated  of,  a  denial  of  the  right  to  suppress  idolatry 
was  a  denial  of  the  right  to  provide  securities  against  an 
irruption  of  Komanism.  It  should  not  excite  surprise  that 
the  Magistrates  thought  it  would  be  hazardous  to  good 
government  and  the  public  peace  to  have  their  authority 
in  matters  of  such  moment'  denounced,  by  a  hot-headed 
young  man,  from  the  first  pulpit  of  the  Colony. 

The  Salem  church,  however,  proceeded,  and  Williams 
had  already  become  their  teacher  when  the  remonstrance 
reached  them.  Precisely  how  long  he  remained  in  that 
place  is  unknown ;  but  some  time  in  the  same,  or  perhaps 
in  the  following  year,  he  withdrew  to  the  more  benignant 
atmosphere  of  Plymouth  Colony,  and  became  assistant  to 
the  pastor  of  the  church  there,  the  separatist,  Mr.  Smith. 
The  affection  of  his  Salem  flock  still  followed  him,  and 
he  was  persuaded  to  retrace  his  steps,  and  resume 
a  home  among  them.  The  mild  Brewster,  loving 
his  virtues,   but  weary  of   his   restless  and  disputatious 


408  HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

spirit,  was  anxious  to  be  rid  of  him.^  lie  returned  to 
Salem  with  more  confidence  in  himself  from  the  position 
which  he  had  occupied  while  absent,  and  the  popular 
favor  which  invited  him  back. 

At  Salem,  Williams  was  not  immediately  called  to  cler- 
ical office,  but  exercised  his  gifts  by  way  of  "  prophecy," 
as  it  was  called,  for  about  a  year.     His  first  outbreak 
after  his  return  was  against  the  practice,  then  beginning, 
and  continued  to  the  present  day,  of  associations, 

November. 

as  they  are  called,  of  neighboring  clergymen 
meeting  at  fixed  intervals,  and  passing  part  of  a  day  to- 
gether in  theological  discussion  and  neighborly  and  fra- 
ternal intercourse.  Against  this  practice  "Williams  in- 
veighed, as  being  what  "  might  grow  in  time  to  a  presby- 
tery or  superintendency,  to  the  prejudice  of  the  Church's 
liberties."  ~  But  this  complaint  did  no  public  harm,  and 
nobody  seems  to  have  troubled  himself  about  it. 

While  at  Plymouth,  he  had  presented  to  the  Governor 
and  Assistants  of  that  Colony  a  treatise,  in  which,  accord- 
ing to  Winthrop's  account,  "  among  other  things,  he  dis- 
puted their  right  to  the  land  they  possessed  here,  and  con- 
cluded, that,  claiming  by  the  king's  grant,  they  could  have 
no  title ;  nor  otherwise,  except  they  compounded  with  the 

natives."     At  the  request  of  the  Maj^istrates  of 

Doc.  27.  .  ^  .  ^ 

Massachusetts,  it  was  subjected  to  their  examina- 
tion, and  was  found  to  contain  matter  for  serious  uneasi- 
ness, both  as  tending  to  bring  into  question  the  titles  to 
estates,  and  to  occasion  high  displeasure  at  the  English 
court,  the  more  as  it  was  accompanied  with  language  of 
studied  affront  to  the  late  and  to  the  reigning  king.    Being 

1  Morton,  Memorial,  151. — Brad-  ford  «ays  (ibid.)  that  it  was  "  with  some 
ford  (310),  after  the  experience  of  a  caution  to  them  concerning  him,  and 
year  or  two,  describes  him  as  "  a  man  what  care  they  ouglit  to  liave  of  liim." 
godly  and  zealous,  having  many  precious  AVinthrop's  interview  Avith  him  at  Ply- 
parts,  but  very  unsettled  in  judgment."  mouth  has  been  mentioned  above  (p. 
When  he  was  dismissed  from  Plymouth  335). 
to  go  back  to  the  Salem  church,  Brad-  ~  Winthrop,  I.  117. 


Chap.  X.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  409 

summoned  to  appear  before  the  Court  "  to  be  censured," 
Williams  did  what  is  perhaps  without  a  parallel  on  any 
earlier  or  later  occasion  of  his  public  life.  He  made  sub- 
mission. He  declared  himself  penitent,  if  he  had  com- 
mitted any  wrong,  and  with  his  consent  the  obnoxious 
manuscript  was  burned.^ 

•  An  exciting  local  question,  on  which  Williams  is  related 
next  to  have  pronounced  himself,  respected  the  duty  of 
women  to  wear  veils  in  all  public  assemblies.  Cotton,  of 
Boston,  took  the  negative  side  in  the  argument,  and,  in 
a  sermon  preached  at  Salem,  handled  it  so  convincingly, 
that  the  ladies  came  to  church  in  the  afternoon  unveiled, 
and  Williams,  though  unconvinced,  desisted.^-  A  more 
serious  movement  of  his,  if  the  allegation  w^as  well  found- 
ed, was  that  of  interesting  himself  with  Endicott  to  cut 
out  the  red  cross  of  England  from  the  colors  of  the 
train-bands  under  his  command,  as  being  an  idolatrous 
symbol.  Endicott  did  thus  mutilate  the  flag,  and  by 
so  doing  raised  a  critical  question.  But  the  agency  of 
Williams  on  the  occasion,  however  probable,  is  perhaps 
not  altogether  proved.^ 

It  was  in  the  year  of  his  reappearance  at  Salem  that  the 
courage  and  policy  of  the  colonists  became  their  only  pro- 
tection, under  God,  against  that  wrong-headed  and  bad- 
hearted  churchman,  of  whose  viciousness  only  the  most 
harmless  side  was  shown  when  he  was  described  as  worthy 
of  "  more  unmitigated  contempt  than  any  other  character 
in  English  history."  "^  Only  a  few  months  had  passed  since 
the  petition  of  Gorges  and  Mason  to  the  Lords  of  the 
Privy  Council  had  been  dismissed  through  what  the  colo- 
nists esteemed  little  short  of  a  miraculous  interposition 
of  Providence.     And  late  in  the  same  year,  an  answer  to 


1  Winthrop,  I.  122.  dington    (Letter    to    George   Fox,   in 

2  Hubbard.  204,  205.  Backus,  I.  445). 

3  Hubbard,   however,    (205,)   confi-  ^  Lord  Macaulav,  Critical  and  His- 
dently  imputes   it   to  him  ;   and  Cod-  torlcal  Essays,  L  159. 

VOL.  I.  35 


410  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

the  charges  which  had  been  produced  in  England  was 
still  under  debate  among  the  Magistrates.-^ 

Such   being   some  of  the  circumstances  in  which  the 

Massachusetts  Magistrates  had  their  renewed  experience 

of  Williams,  it  is  not  surprising  if  they  interfered  again 

with  their  advice  when  it  was  proposed  to  appoint  him 

to  the  place  lately  vacated  by  the  death  of  Mr.  Skelton,^ 

But  the  Salem  church  persisted,  and  he  was  for- 

nially  installed.     A  little  time  only  passed  before 

the  Magistrates  found  cause  to  complain  of  him  for  having 

"  broken  his  promise  in  teachinp^  publicly  against 

November  '^  .        .  ,    ?      . 

the  king's  patent,  and  our  great  sni  ni  clannmg 
right  thereby  to  this  country,  &c.,  and  for  usual  terming 
the  churches  of  England  Anticliristian."  ^  Next,  the  Gov- 
1635.  ernor  and  Assistants  sent  for  him  to  answer  to  a 
'^P"'  charge  of  having  "  taught  publicly  that  a  magis- 
trate ought  not  to  tender  an  oath  to  an  unregenerate  per- 
son, for  that  they  thereby  have  communion  with  a  wicked 
man  in  the  worship  of  God,  and  cause  him  to  take  the 
name  of  God  in  vain " ;  "*  a  doctrine  which,  besides  the 
embarrassment  it  offered  to  the  common  administration 
of  justice,  had  special  political  significance  at  a  time  when 
it  had  been  thought  necessary  to  pass  the  acts  prescrib- 
ing the  "  Freeman's  Oath  "  and  the  "  Resident's  Oath," 
measures  for  securing  allegiance  to  the  Colony,  in  oppo- 
sition, if  that  should  prove  needful,  to  the  king. 

Williams  "  was  heard  before  all  the  ministers,  and  very 
clearly  confuted."  A  few  days  after,  the  annual  Court  of 
Elections  met,  and,  by  a  further  application  of  the  new 
principle  of  rotation  in  office,  Mr.  liaynes  was  chosen 
Governor,  with  Mr.  Bellingham,  who  had  arrived  }n  the 
last  year,  as  Deputy-Governor,  and  the  same  Assistants  as 

1  Wiiitlirnp,  I.  lOG,  107.  not  observed  tliat  it  is  ri'lated  by  any 

2  I  suppose  this  second  interference     earlier  ■vvritei'. 

of   the    Magistrates   rests   on   the    au-         ^  "Wintlirnp,  I.  151. 
thority   of    Hubbard    (201).      I   have         ^  Ibid.,  158. 


Chap.  X.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  411 

formerly,  except  that  Mr.  Hough  and  Mr,  Dummer  were 
added,  and  that  Mr.  Ludlow  and  Mr.  Endicott  w^re 
left  out,  havmg  given  offence.  It  was  perhaps  because 
the  Magistrates  were  disposed  to  avoid  the  sole  responsi- 
bility of  the  controversy  with  Williams,  that,  at  an  ad- 
iourned  meeting:,  it  was  taken  up  by  the  General 

''  ^  .  Julys. 

Court.  Part  of  the  charges  which  had  been  be- 
fore made  against  him  were  restated  with  some  amplifica- 
tion, and  "  time  was  given  to  him  and  the  church  of  Sa- 
lem to  consider  of  these  things  till  the  next  General  Court, 
and  then  either  to  give  satisfaction  to  the  Court,  or  else 
to  expect  the  sentence."  ^  While  the  matter  was  thus 
pending,  the  town  of  Salem  applied  to  the  Magistrates  for 
a  grant  of  land.  "  But  because  they  had  chosen  Mr. 
Williams  their  teacher,  while  he  stood  under  question  of 
authority,  and  so  offered  contempt  to  the  Magistrates, 
their  petition  was  refused."  Williams  struck  back.  He 
caused  his  church  to  "  write  to  other  churches,  to  admon- 
ish the  Magistrates  of  this  as  a  heinous  sin,  and  likewise 
the  Deputies.^  When  little  attention  was  paid  to  this 
missive,  Williams  addressed  a  letter  to  his  own  church, 
moving  them  to  renounce  all  communication  with  the 
other  churches  of  the  Colony ;  an  act  of  isolation,  of 
which  he  presently  set  an  example  by  ceasing  to  com- 
mune with  them  because  they  rejected  his  advice,^  and  by 
refusing  to  join  in  family  prayers  or  grace  at  table  with 
his  wife,  because  she  continued  to  frequent  their  com- 
munion.^ While  the  imputed  intolerance  of  others  pro- 
voked Williams's  vehement  displeasure,  he  indulged  him- 
self in  the  largest  liberty  of  being  exclusive  in  ways  of 
his  own. 

The  next  General  Court  unseated  the  Deputies 
from  Salem,  till  their  constituents  should  apolo-    "^'"* 

1  I  relate  this  on   the   authority  of        3  Ibid.,  1G6,  171. 

Winthrop  (I.  162,  163)-.  The  public  ^  Hubbard,  207,  Morton,  Memo- 
record  has  nothing  of  it.  rial,  153. 

2  Ibid.,  164. 


412  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

gize  for  having  "  exceedingly  reproached  and  vilified  the 
Magistrates  and  churches,"  ^  which  was  presently  done. 
The  Magistrates  and  Deputies  had  now  brought  to  their 
meeting  a  persuasion  that  Williams  and  their  constituents 
could  not  advantageously  live  together ;  which  being  as- 
sumed, it  was  clear  that  he  could  much  more  easily  re- 
move than  they.  Accordingly  they  passed  the  following 
Banishment  ordcr '.  "  "Wliercas  Mr.  Roger  Williams,  one  of 
wimams.      the  elders  of  the  church  of  Salem,  hath  broached 

Sept.  3.  r^j-^^  divulged  divers  new  and  dangerous  opinions 
against  the  authority  of  magistrates,  as  also  writ  letters 
of  defamation  both  of  the  Magistrates  and  churches  here, 
and  that  before  any  conviction,  and  yet  maintaineth  the 
same  without  retraction,  it  is  therefore  ordered,  that  the 
said  Mr.  AYilliams  shall  depart  out  of  this  jurisdiction 
within  six  weeks  now  next  ensuing ;  which  if  he  neglect 
to  perform,  it  shall  be  lawful  for  the  Governor  and  two 
of  the  Magistrates  to  send  him  to  some  place  out  of  this 
jurisdiction,  not  to  return  any  more  without  license  from 
the  Court."'  ~ 

The  liberty  to  remain  for  six  weeks  was  extended  to 
the  next  spring,  when,  profiting  by  the  friendly  relations 
he  had  established  with  the  Indians  during  his  residence 
at  Plymouth,  AVilliams  intended  to  form  a  settlement  on 
Narragansett  Bay.  It  was  not  in  his  nature,  however,  — 
at  least  till  years  had  chastened  it,  —  to  take  any  vaca- 
tion from  controversy.  The  excitement  Avhich  he  still 
kept  up  at  Salem  seemed  to  the  Magistrates  to  justify  the 
opinion  that  he  would  not  be  a  safe  neighbor  even  at  the 
proposed  distance ;  and  they  sent  Captain  Underhill  from 
Boston  to  put  him  on  board  a  vessel  about  to  sail  for 
]03r,.      England.^     Getting  intelligence  of  this,  Williams 

januar)'.  ipf|-  <^alem  aud  his  family  three  days  before  that 
officer's  arrival,  and  took  to  the  woods. 

The  case  of  Williams  was  not  a  novel  one  in  the  juris- 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rcc,  I.  156.  2  ibid.,  IGO,  IGl.  ^  W'lnthrop,  I.  209,  210. 


Chap.  X.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  413 

diction.  From  considerations  of  the  public  quiet  less 
immediately  urgent  than  those  which  determined  his  dis- 
mission, the  Brownes  had  been  shipped  back  in  the  first 
year  of  the  Company's  occupation  of  its  property  in  Mas- 
sachusetts Bay.  The  Brownes  were  men  of  business ;  the 
one  a  lawyer,  the  other  a  merchant.  They  considered 
themselves  to  have  suffered  injustice,  and  they  made  a 
demand  upon  the  Company  for  damages.  But,  though 
the  cause  of  their  expulsion  was  religious  dissent,  we  do 
not  read  of  their  having  rested  their  claim  on  the  inviola- 
bility of  conscience,  v  Gardiner,  Stone,  Walford,  Gray, 
Lynn,  Smith,  and  various  others,  named  and  unnamed, 
had  been  sent  away,^  for  various  reasons,  resolving  them- 
selves into  the  persuasive  reason  that  their  presence  was 
found  inconvenient  and  dangerous  by  men  who  had  a 
right  to  choose  their  company ;  but  they  had  not  the 
faith  and  the  ability  of  Williams,  to  convince  others  that 
a  great  principle  was  outraged  in  their  persons.  The 
Brownes  were  officers  of  the  Company.  Williams  was 
not  even  a  freeman  of  it.  He  had  not  been  so  false  to 
his  principles  as  to  take  the  oath  for  admission  to  its 
franchise.^  By  mere  sufferance  he  had  been^  a  sojourner 
upon  land  for  which  the  Magistrates,  and  others  hereto- 
fore and  now  associated  with  them  and  represented  by 
them,  had  given  their  money,  in  order  to  the  promotion 
of  a  great  public  object. 

The  sound  and  generous  principle  of  a  perfect  freedom 
of  the  conscience  in  religious  concerns  can  scarcely  be 
shown  to  have  been  involved  in  this  dispute.  There  was 
no  question  upon  dogmas  between  Williams  and  those 
who  dismissed  him.  At  a  later  period  he  was  prone  to 
capricious  changes  of  religious  opinion^     But  as  yet  there 

1  Winthrop,  I.  61,  111  ;   Mass.  Col.  Bnt  he  was  a  Dorchester  man,  who  had 
Ree.,  I.  77,  82,  83,  86,  91,  108,  159.  given  notice  of  his  intention  in  the  pre- 

2  Among   tlie   freemen  admitted  in  ceding  October  (Ibid.,  80),  before  the 
May,  1631,  there  was  a  Roger  'Williams,  minister  of  Salem  was  in  the  country. 

35* 


414 


HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 


[Book  I. 


was  no  development  of  this  kind.  As  long  as  he  was  in 
Massachusetts,  he  was  no  heretic,  tried  by  the  standard  of 
the  time  and  the  place.  He  was  not  charged  with  heresy. 
The  questions  which  he  raised,  and  by  raising  which  he 
provoked  opposition,  were  questions  relating  to  political 
rights  and  to  the  administration  of  government. 

Liberty  in  religion  is  a  doctrine  so  consonant  to  reason, 
that  it  is  spontaneously  recognized  by  those  to  whom  its 
enjoyment  is  denied,  though,  as  soon  as  they  acquire  pow- 
er, they  are  tempted  to  be  impatient  of  contradiction,  and 
to  allow  their  perception  of  the  right  to  become  confused. 
Roger  Williams  in  England  had  had  some  acquaintance 
with  the  Baptists,  who,  for  many  years  before  his  de- 
parture, had  stated  and  maintained  the  doctrine  in  the 
most  unqualified  terms.^     When  he  recrossed  the  water 


1  It  "  hath  been  spoken  by  some  emi- 
nent sectaries,"  says  Tliomas  Edwards 
(Gangrasna,  17),  that,  "if  it  be  men's 
consciences,  the  magistrate  may  not 
punish  for  blasphemies,  nor  for  denying 
the  Scriptures,  nor  for  denying  there  is 
a  God."  —  "The  magistrate  is  not  to 
meddle  with  religion,  nor  matters  of 
conscience,  nor  to  compel  men  to  this 
or  that  form  of  religion,  because  Christ 
is  the  King  and  Lawgiver  of  the  Church 
and  conscience."  (Baptist  Confession 
of  Faith  in  ICll,  in  Crosby's  "History 
of  the  English  Baptists,"  I.  Append., 
71 .)  —  "  The  King  and  Parliament  may 
please  to  permit  all  sorts  of  Christians, 
yea,  Jews,  Turks,  and  Pagans,  so  long 
as  they  are  peaceable  and  no  malefac- 
tors." (Religion's  Peace,  printed  in 
London  in  1014,  and  reprinted  by  the 
Hansard  Knollys  Society,  in  their  vol- 
ximc  entitled  "Tracts  on  Liberty  of 
Coni^cience,"  33,  comp.  301.  Comp. 
Price's  History  of  Non-conformity,  I. 
519 -.523;  Hanbury,  Historical  Memo- 
rials, &c.,  L  224,  225.)  —  Earlier  than 
the  Baptists,  Bobert  Brown  (see  above, 
p.  123)  had  written:  "To  compel  re- 


ligion, to  plant  churches  by  power,  and 
to  force  a  submission  to  ecclesiastical' 
government  by  laws  and  penalties,  be- 
longeth  not  to  them  [the  magistrates], 
neither  yet  to  the  Church."  (Treatise 
of  Reformation  without  Tarrying  (12), 
Middelburgh,  1582.)  —In  his  "Bloody 
Tenent  of  Persecution  "  (Chap.  LXL), 
Williams  refers  to  persons  before  him 
(three  Christian  kings  among  others), 
who  had  denied  all  right  of  rulers  over 
the  conscience.  To  bis  list  of  such 
rulers  he  might  have  added  the  more 
modern  name  of  William  the  Silent. 
(See  Prescott,  History  of  Pliilip  the 
Second,  I.  491  ;  Brandt,  History  of  the 
Reformation,  &c.,  I.  382  ;  INIotley,  Rise  of 
the  Dutch  Republic,  HI.  206, '348.)  — 
Lord  Bacon  liad  reflected  upon  the  sub- 
ject :  "  Optime  ct  prudentissime  obser- 
vatum  est  ab  uno  ex  patribus,  profundaB 

sapientije  viro, eos  qui  conscientias 

premi,  iisque  vim  inferri  suadent,  sub 
illo  dogmate  cupiditates  suas  subtexere, 
iliamc^ue  rem  sua  interesse  putare." 
(Sermo  de  Unitate  Ecclesi^.  Comp. 
Strype,  Life  of  Whitgift,  I.  72;"  Motley, 
United  Netherlands,  II.  226.) 


Chap.  X.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  415 

after  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War  in  England,  he  came 
before  the  English  world  in  a  learned  discussion,  with 
Cotton,  on  the  extent  and  sacredness  of  freedom  of  con- 
science ;  in  which  he  maintained  correct  opinions  on  that 
greEit  theme,  and  defended  them,  allowing  for  the  rhe- 
torical fashions  of  the  day,  with  clearness  and  ability.^ 
But  this  was  eight  years  after  his  expulsion  from  Massa- 
chusetts; and  from  Massachusetts  he  had  been  warned 
away,  not  by  Cotton  and  the  ministers,  but  by  the  voice 
of  a  majority,  at  least,  of  ten  Magistrates  and  twenty- 
eight  Deputies  assembled  in  General  Court.  And  their 
decree  formally  recited  its  ground  to  be,  not  theological 
dissent,  but  civil  turbulence,  —  proceedings  hostile  to  the 
authority  of  magistrates,  and  defamation  of  Magistrates 
and  churches. 

Should  it  be  believed  that  other  considerations  had  their 
weight  in  prompting  the  decree,  still  its  terms  would  show 
the  important  fact  that  a  claim  to  control  the  faith  of 
the  citizen  was  one  which  the  rulers  could  not  venture 
to  avow.  But  it  would  be  unjust  to  regard  the  ground  of 
the  General  Court  as  disingenuously  taken.  There  is  no 
reason  whatever  to  doubt,  that,  correctly  or  otherwise,  they 
considered  themselves  to  be  proceeding  in  the  way  which 

Mn  1643,  Williams  published  in  Lon-  and  exclusive.  In  the  following  year 
don  his  book  entitled  "  Mr.  Cotton's  Williams  published  in  London  his 
Letter,  lately  printed,  examined  and  "  Bloody  Tenent  of  Persecution."  Cot- 
answered."  This,  it  seems,  was  a  ton  replied,  three  years  later,  in  the 
private  letter  of  Cotton,  addressed  to  "  Bloody  Tenent  washed  and  made 
Williams  soon  after  his  departui-e  from  White  in  the  Blood  of  the  Lamb  " ;  and 
Salem.  How  it  came  to  the  press,  nei-  Williams  rejoined,  in  1652,  in  the 
ther  Williams  nor  Cotton  knew.  Cot-  "  Bloody  Tenent  yet  more  Bloody," 
ton's  Letter  and  Williams's  Reply  are  &c.  The  same  year,  Williams  pub- 
arguments  upon  the  question  "  whether  lished  the  "  Hireling  Ministry  none  of 
those  ought  to  be  received  into  the  Christ's,"  and  "  Experiments  of  Spirit- 
church  who  are  godly,  though  they  do  ual  Life  and  Health  and  their  Preser- 
not  see,  nor  expressly  bewail,  all  the  vatives."  In  1676,  he  issued  at  Boston 
pollutions  in  church  fellowship,  minis-  a  book  against  the  Quakers,  with  a 
try,  worship,  and  government."  Upon  long  title,  of  which  the  first  clause  is, 
this  thesis,  Cotton  takes  the  affirmative,  "  George  Fox  digged  out  of  his  Bur- 
or  liberal  side ;  Williams,  the  negative  rowes." 


•416  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

the  safety  and  well-being  of  the  Colony,  as  a  civil  commu- 
nity, required.  The  statement  of  Cotton  is  entirely  credi- 
ble, where  he  says  :  "Two  things  there  were,  which,  to  my 
best  observation  and  remembrance,  caused  the  sentence  of 
his  banishment,  and  two  others  fell  in,  that  hastened  it." 
As  the  first  of  these,  he  specifics  AVilliams's  "  violent  and 
tumultuous  carriage  against  the  patent,"  the  inestimable 
foundation,  as  he  proceeds  to  show  in  some  detail,  of  the 
privileges  and  property  of  the  colonists.^  As  the  second 
cause,  he  names  the  strictly  political  one,  that  "  when  the 
Magistrates  and  other  members  of  the  General  Court, 
upon  intelligence  of  some  episcopal  and  malignant  prac- 
tices against  the  country,  made  an  order  of  Court  to  take 
trial  of  the  fidelity  of  the  people,  not  by  imposing  upon 
them,  but  by  offering  to  them,  an  oath  of  fidelity,  that,  in 
case  any  should  refuse  to  take  it,  they  might  not  betrust 
them  with  place  of  public  charge  and  command,  this  oath, 
when  it  came  abroad,  he  vehemently  withstood  it,  and  dis- 
suaded sundry  from  it,  partly  because  it  was,  as  he  said, 
Christ's  prerogative  to  have  his  office  established  by  oath, 
partly  because  an  oath  was  a  part  of  God's  worship,  and 
God's  worship  was  not  to  be  put  upon  carnal  persons." 
The  occasions  which  "  hastened "  the  proceeding  against 
him.  Cotton  represents  to  have  been  Williams's  appeal  to 
the  churches  against  the  Magistrates,  and  his  renouncing 

1  "  This  he  pressed  upon  tlic  magis-  ished  thence  for  differing  from  us,  being 

trates  and  people,  to  be  humbled  for  a  man  of  good  report,  &(\,  I  answer, 

from  time  to  time  in  days  of  solemn  I  know  that  Mr.  Williams 

humiliation,  and  to  return  the  patent  held  forth  in  those  times  the  unlawful- 
back  again  to  the  king."  (Reply  to  nessofour  letters  patent  from  the  king, 
Mr.  Williams  his  Examination,  27.)  &c.,  would  not  allow  the  colors  of  our 
"  This  was  still  pressed  by  him  as  a  nation,  denied  the  lawfulness  of  a  pub- 
national  sin,  to  holil  to  the  patent,  yea,  lie  oath And  truly  I  never  heard 

and  a  national  duty  to  renounce  the  but  he  was  dealt  with  for  these  and  such 

patent,  which  to  have  done  had  sub-  like  points."     (Hypocrisie  Unmasked, 

verted  the  fundamental  state  and  gov-  G6.)     Robert  Baylie,  who  knew  Wil- 

ernment  of  the  country."     (Ibid.,  28.)  liams,  says  (Dissuasive,  &c.,  126),  "  Mr. 

—  To  the  same  effect  was  the  later  testi-  Williams's  opposition  to  the  oath  [to 

mony  of  Winslow  :  "  Whereas  he  [Gor-  maintain  the  patent],  as  he  allegeth, 

ton]  said  that  ]\Ir.  AVilliams  was  ban-  was  the  chief  cause  of  his  banishment." 


Chap.  X.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  417 

communion  with  the  church  of  Salem  on  account  of  its 
refusal  to  proceed  with  him  in  his  disorganizing  meas- 
ures.^ 

In  fact,  the  young  minister  of  Salem  had  maae  an  issue 
with  his  rulers  and  his  neighbors  upon  fundamental  points 
of  their  power  and  their  property,  including  their  power 
of  self-protection  against  the  tyranny  from  which  they  had 
lately  escaped.  Unintentionally,  but  effectually,  he  had  set 
himself  to  play  into  the  hands  of  the  king  and  the  Arch- 
bishop. He  was  not  the  sort  of  person  whom  the  leaders 
could  expect  to  dissuade  by  taking  him  into  their  counsels. 
Nor  on  other  accounts  could  that  course  have  seemed  to 
them  prudent,  considering  his  volatile  character.  But  it 
was  not  to  be  thought  of  by  the  sagacious  patriots  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, that,  in  the  great  work  which  they  had  in  hand, 
they  should  suffer  themselves  to  be  defeated  by  such  ran- 
dom movements. 

Williams  had  great  virtues,  and  some  of  them  were  of 
that  character  which  peculiarly  wins  and  attaches.  He 
was  eminently  courageous,  disinterested,  and  kind-hearted. 
If  (in  his  early  days,  at  least)  he  belonged  to  that  class 
of  men  who  have  no  peace  for  themselves  except  in  sharp 
strife  with  others,  —  if  the  ce7'ta?ninis  gaudia^  the  joy  of 
quarrel,  made  an  indispensable  condition  of  his  satisfac- 
tion of  mind,  —  he  was  incapable  of  any  feeling  of  malice 
or  vindictiveness  towards  opponents.^  Though  in  his  con- 
troversies he  uses  strong  language,  as  was  his  wont  on  all 
occasions,  a  tone  of  friendliness  is  scarcely  ever  aban- 
doned. Differ  and  contend  he  must.  For  him  a  stagnant 
life  was  not  worth  living.  When  he  had  made  a  few 
proselytes  to  his  last  novelty,  and  so  far  prevailed  to  have 
his  own  way,  he  would  start  off  on  some  new  track,  im- 


1  Reply  to  Mr.  Williams  his  Exam-  that  Winthrop  once  •wrote  to  him,  "  Sir, 
ination,  27-30.  we  have  often  tried  your  patience,  but 

2  In  the  manuscript  letter    quoted  could  never  conquer  it." 
above  (p.  406,  note  1),  Williams  says 


418  IIISTORY   OF  KEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

pelled  by  his  irresistible  besetting  hunger  for  excitement 
and  conflict.  But  with  all  this  he  had  a  sweetness  of 
temper,  and  a  constancy  of  benevolence,  that  no  hard 
treatment  could  overcome,  and  no  difficulties  or  dangers 
exhaust  or  discourage. 

Yet  Williams  had  no  such  virtues  as  would  have  made 
it  virtuous  in  the  rulers  of  Massachusetts  to  indulge  him 
in  obstructing  their  work.  Every  good  man  whose  con- 
victions bring  him  into  trouble  is  to  be  compassionated, 
apart  from  the  consideration  of  his  convictions  being  de- 
liberate, reasonable,  ajid  salutary  to  the  public,  or  of  an 
opposite  character.  \  But  the  man  who,  with  the  most 
generous  intentions,  takes  upon  himself  the  responsibility 
of  disturbing  the  order  of  a  community,  with  a  view  to 
some  greater  good  than  in  the  existing  state  of  things  is 
attainable  without  disturbance,  must  not  look  to  his  vir- 
tues to  protect  him  from  the  consequences  of  his  daring. 
His  virtues  give  him  an  advantage  in  the  pursuit  of  his 
object,  and  will  enhance  his  fame,  if  he  wins  it.  But  they 
will  properly  make  him  only  a  more  conspicuous  object  of 
assault  while  the  conflict  is  pending,  and  a  more  exposed 
victim,  if  it  goes  against  him.  In  civil  controversies,  as 
in  war,  it  is  not  the  worthless  among  its  adversaries  that 
power  does  and  should  chiefly  strike  at,  but  those  who, 
from  their  personal  qualities,  —  their  courage,  capacity, 
resolution,  and  fitness  to  attach,  combine,  and  animate,  — 
are  the  natural  heads  of  that  opposition  which,  for  the 
public  safety,  must  be  overcome. 

For  his  busy  disaffection  AVilliams  was  punished,  rather 
he  was  disabled  for  the  mischief  it  threatened,  by  banish- 
ment from  the  jurisdiction.  He  was  punished  much  less 
severely  than  the  dissenters  from  the  popular  will  were 
punished  throughout  the  North  American  Colonies  at 
the  time  of  the  final  rupture  with  the  mother  country. 
Virtually,  the  freemen  said  to  him :  "  It  is  not  best  that 
you  and  we  should  live  together,  and  we  cannot  agree  to 


Chap.  X.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  419 

it.  We  have  just  put  ourselves  to  great  loss  and  trouble 
for  the  sake  of  pursuing  our  own  objects  uninterrupted, 
and  we  must  be  allowed  to  do  so.  Your  liberty,  as  you 
understand  it  and  are  bent  on  using  it,  is  not  compatible 
with  the  security  of  ours.  Since  you  cannot  accommodate 
yourself  to  us,  go  away.  The  world  is  wide,  and  it  is  as 
open  to  you  as  it  was  just  now  to  us.  We  do  not  wish  to 
harm  you,  but  there  is  no  place  for  you  among  us."  Ban- 
ishment is  a  word  of  ill  sound ;  but  the  banishment  from 
one  part  of  New  England  to  another,  to  which,  in  the 
early  period  of  their  residence,  the  settlers  condemned 
Williams,  was  a  thing  widely  different  from  that  banish- 
ment from  luxurious  Old  England  to  desert  New  England, 
to  which  they  had  just  condemned  themselves.  There  was 
little  hardship  in  leaving  unattractive  Salem  for  a  residence 
on  the  beautiful  shore  of  Narragansett  Bay,  except  as  the 
former  had  a  very  short  start  in  the  date  of  its  first  culti- 
vation. Williams,  involuntarily  separated  from  Massachu- 
setts, went  with  his  company  to  Providence,  the  same  year 
that  Hooker  and  Stone  and  their  company,  self-exiled, 
went  from  Massachusetts  to  Connecticut.  If  to  the  for- 
mer the  movement  was  not  optional,  it  was  the  same  that 
the  latter  chose  when  it  was  optional,  and  it  proved  ad- 
vantageous for  all  the  parties  concerned.^ 

To  urge  that  religious  zealots,  in  and  out  of  the  pulpit, 
had  their  part  in  exciting  a  displeasure  against  Williams,  on 

^  "  In  some  cases,  banishment  is  a  forts  as  change  them.  And  as  for  spir- 
just  punishment,  if  it  be  in  proper  itual  Hberties  (liberty  of  Church  ordi- 
speech  a  punishment  at  all  in  such  a  nances),  they  were  a  burden  and  bond- 
country  as  this  is,  where  the  jurisdiction  age  to  his  spirit  here,  and  therefore  he 
whence  a  man  is  banished  is  but  small,  cast  them  off,  before  they  left  bun." 
and  the  country  round  about  it  large  (Cotton,  Reply,  &c.,  pp.  8,  9.)  —  It  is 
and  fruitful,  where  a  man  may  make  his  true  that,  after  what  they  thought  new 
choice  of  variety  of  more  pleasant  and  provocation,  the  Magistrates  decided,  or 
profitable  seats  than  he  leaveth  behind  threatened,  to  send  Williams  back  to 
him.  la  which  respect,  banishment  in  England ;  but  this  was  no  part  of  their 
this  country  is  not  counted  so  much  a  oriffinal  purpose,  and,  once  out  of  their 
confinement  as  an  enlargement,  where  neighborhood,  there  is  no  sign  of  their 
a  man  doth  not  so  much  lose  civil  com-  having  wished  to  molest  him. 


420  HISTORY   OF  KEW   ENGLAISD.  [Book  I. 

grounds  independent  of  the  political  mischief  threatened 
by  his  course,  would  be  to  say  little  towards  invalidating 
the  considerations  which  have  been  presented.  There  is 
no  community  free  from  narrowness,  prejudices,  and  pas- 
sions; and  it  is  no  strange  thing  in  political  action  for 
those  who  are  charged  with  the  burden  of  affairs  to  allow 
sentiments  which  prevail  around  them,  but  in  which  they 
do  not  share,  to  relieve  them  of  part  of  a  hard  duty,  and 
sustain  them  in  it ;  and  this,  without  proceeding  in  their 
measures  a  step  beyond  what  their  deliberate  convictions 
dictate,  and  without  any  conscious  compromising  of  the 
magnanimity  of  their  own  course.  Nor  is  it  to  be  for- 
gotten, that,  as  to  the  narrowness  which  repels  dissen- 
tients from  sympathy  and  communion,  it  was  Williams 
that  maintained  the  exclusive  side  in  this  controversy,  and 
the  Magistrates  and  ministers  that  maintained  the  liberal 
side.  It  was  he,  not  they,  that  refused  communion  with 
good  Christians  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  not  only 
this,  but  refused  fellowship  with  those  who  practised  that 
communion,  and  even  with  those  who  would  not  pub- 
licly proclaim  their  repentance  for  having  ever  practised  it. 
Williams  has  been  deservedly  praised  for  his  freedom 
from  personal  rancor  during  and  after  these  transactions. 
His  opponents  merit  similar  commendation.  His  generous 
candor  cordially  acknowledged  their  uprightness  and  their 
personal  kindnesses,  and  justly  attributed  their  proceed- 
ings against  himself  to  their  sense  of  public  duty.  He 
"  always  honored  "  these  men,  he  says,  "  when  they  were 
pleased  to  afflict  him."  His  subsequent  correspondence 
with  Winthrop  is  full  of  endearments.  His  "ancient 
friend^  Mr.  Winslow,"  and  "the  prudent  and  godly  Gover- 
nor, Mr.  Bradford,  and  others  of  his  godly  council,"  are 
remembered  with  the  same  kindness.  He  records  with 
touching  gratitude  the  bounty  of  "  that  great  and  pious 
soul,  Mr.  Winslow,"  who  "kindly  visited  him  at  Provi- 
dence, and  put  a  piece  of  gold  into  the  hands  of  his  wife 


Chap.  X.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  421 

for  their  supply."  ^  And  his  intervention  with  the  Indians 
at  the  instance  of  those  from  whom  he  thought  he  had 
suffered  injustice,  while  it  proves  his  own  magnanimity, 
also  proves  indirectly  his  sense  of  their  deserts.^ 

While,  among  those  whose  dismission  from  Massachu- 
setts was  from  time  to  time  required  by  the  necessities  of 
the  public  safety,  the  personal  merit  of  Roger  Williams 
has  caused  him  to  be  selected  for  the  special  notice  of 
history,  the  same  result  has  followed  from  his  having  be- 
come the  founder  of  a  State,  whose  citizens  feel  an  honor- 
able pride  in  commemorating  his  achievements  and  char- 
acter.^ 

Thirty  years  after  his  departure  from  Salem,  Williams 
related  how  he  was  "  sorely  tossed  for  fourteen  weeks  in  a 
bitter  winter  season,  not  knowing  what  bread  or  bed  did 
mean."  He  appears  to  have  passed  the  winter  in  the 
country  of  the  Pokanoket  Indians,  to  whom  he  had  en- 
deared himself  during  his  residence  at  Plymouth.^  He 
had  been  advised,  he  says,  by  "  that  ever-honored  Gov- 
ernor, Mr.  Winthrop,  for  many  high  and  heavenly  and 
public  ends,  to  steer  his  course  to  the  Nahigonsett  Bay 
and  Indians,"  there  to  find  an  unchallenged  home.  Tak- 
ing "  his  prudent  motion  as  a  hint  and  voice  from  God," 
Williams  determined  to  proceed  upon  it,  but  went  no 
further  than  Seekonk,  where,  being  joined  in  the  spring 
by  a  few  of  his  Salem  friends,  he  "  first  pitched  and  began 
to  build  and  plant."  ^     This  plan,  however,  was  not  to 

1  Letter  to  Major  Mason,  In  Mass.  equitable  manner  in  which  the  Rhode 
Hist.  Coll.,  I.  275.  —  Williams,  when  Island  writers,  with  feelings,  as  waa 
he  wrote  thus,  had  had  no  such  contro-  natural,  warmly  enlisted  in  this  contro- 
versy with  the  Plymouth  people  as  with  versy,  have  generally  treated  it. 

those  of  Massachusetts.     But  with  them,  4  «  !„  wilderness,  in  great  distress, 

too,  he  had  had  his  disagreements,  as  These  ravens  iiave  fed  me." 

will  be  seen  hereafter.                  '  (Key  to  the  Indian  Languages,  Chap.  II.) 

2  See  below,  p.  460.  Tlie  remark  in  ^  Tradition  points  out  a  spot  in  See- 
the text  holds  good,  though  Williams's  konk,  just  "  above  the  central  bridge, 
plantation  too  would  have  been  endan-  and  on  the  east  side  of  the  cove,  on 
gered  bv  a  "-eiieral  vising  of  the  Indians,  what  is  called  Manton's  Neck,"  as  that 

3  Kiiowk's's  Ijife  of  linger  Williams  where  Williams  "began  to  build  and 
is    a    "oo  1    specimen    of    the   fair    and  plant."  (Bliss,  History  of  lichoboth,  17.) 

VOL.  I.  3G 


422  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

prosper.  "  I  received  a  letter,"  he  says,  "  from  my  ancient 
friend,  Mr.  Winslow,  then  Governor  of  Plymouth,  profess- 
ing his  own  and  others'  love  and  respect  for  me,  yet  lov- 
ingly advising  me,  since  I  was  fallen  into  the  edge  of 
their  bounds,  and  they  were  loth  to  displease  the  Bay,  to 
remove  but  to  the  other  side  of  the  water ;  and  then,  he 
said,  I  had  the  country  before  me,  and  might  be  as  free 
as  themselves,  and  we  should  be  loving  neighbors  to- 
gether." 1 

Accordingly,  with  five  companions,"  Williams  launched 
his  canoe  on  the  Seekonk  River  to  look  for  another  home. 

irao.  He  landed  on  the  high  point  which  divides  that 
rrovuknco  strcaui  from  the  uppermost  inlet  of  Narragansett 
founded.  'Bay,  and,  by  a  spring  of  water,  laid  the  foundation 
of  what  is  now  the  beautiful  city  of  Providence.  If  the 
reputation  of  Williams  had  not  spread  so  far  among  the 
natives,^  his  knowledge  of  their  language  gave  him  an 

1  Mass.  Ilist.  Col.,  I.  276.  them  that,  -when  he  consented  to  that 

2  Thov  were  WilHam  Harris,  John  ordtT,  he  never  intended  it  sliould  ex- 
Smith,  Joshua  A^'erin,  Thomas  Anael,  tend  to  the  breach  of  any  ordinance  of 
and  Francis  AVickes.  The  humble-  God,  such  as  the  subjection  of  wives  to 
ness  of  these  names  is  one  indication  their  husbands,  and  gave  divers  solid 
of  the  little  influence  which  Williams  reasons  against  it.      Then  one  Greene 

had   been  able  to  exert.  —  Harris  was  replied,  that,  if  they  should  re- 

afterwards  charged  by  "Williams  with  strain  their  wives,  all  the  women  of  the 

high  treason.      (Rhode  Island  Colony  country  Avould  cry  out  of  them 

Records,   T.    3G1.)      A^erin   became   a  In  conclusion,  when  they  would  have 

Quaker  (Hutchinson,  I.   187),  and  in  censured  Ycrin,  Arnold  told  them  that 

time  he  was  one  of  those  who  at  Provi-  it  was  against  their  own  order,  for  A^c- 

dence  reduced  to  one  of  its  practical  rin  did  that  he  did  out  of  conscience; 

tests  the  sweeping  principle  which  had  and  their  order  was,  that  no  man  should 

brought  him  away  from  Salem.     Some  be  censured  for  his  conscience."   (AVin- 

religious  meetings  having  been  cstab-  throp,  I.   283.)     The  reformers  were 

lished,  Verin  "  refused  to  let  his  wife  getting  puzzled  by  some  corollaries  to 

go  to  ISIr.  AVilliams  so  oft  as  she  was  their  proposition. 

called  for."    (AVinthrop,  I.  283.)    Uj)on  ^  H^   haJ    gat   down,   however,   on 

this,  "  it  was  agreed  that  Joshua  A'erin,  ground   of   the    Narragansetts,    whose 

upon  the  breach  of  a  covenant,  for  the  chiefs,    Canonicus     and     Miantoiiomo, 

restraining  of  the  liberty  of  conscience  are  said  to  have  promised  him,  a  year 

shall   be   withheld   from  the  liberty  of  or  two  before,  a  grant  of  land,  of  which, 

voting  till  lu!  shall  declare  the  contrary."  during  the  early  period  of  his  contro- 

(11.  I.  Col.  llec,  I.  IG.)     "There  stood  versy    with    tlie   Magistrates,     he    had 

up  one  Arnold,  a   witty  man  of  their  thought  of  availing  himself.     (See  11.  I. 

owa  company,  and  withstood  it,  telling  Col.  Rec,  I.  22.) 


Chap.  X.]  PROVIDENCE.  423 

advantage  for  intercourse  with  them,  by  which  his  benev- 
olence and  address  did  not  fail  to  profit;  and  he  easily 
agreed  with  them  for  leave  to  occupy  the  lands  ^gsa 
"  lying  upon  the  two  fresh  rivers,  called  Moos-  ^^""""^  ^^' 
hausick  and  Wanasquatucket."  The  bargain,  with  its 
avails,  was  his  own ;  ^  he  fulfilled  it  with  money  borrowed 
on  a  mortgage  of  his  house  and  land  in  Salem ;  but  he 
freely  gave  lands  to  all  comers. 

The  government,  established  first,  was  the  simplest  de- 
mocracy.- "  AVe  do  promise,"  such  was  the  compact,  "  to 
subject  ourselves,  in  active  and  passive  obedience,  to  all 
such  orders  or  agreements  as  shall  be  made  for  public 
good  of  the  body  in  an  orderly  way  by  the  major  consent 
of  the  present  inhabitants,  masters  of  families,  incorpo- 
rated together  into  a  township,  and  such  others  ivhom 
they  shall  admit  into  the  same,  only  in  civil  things."  ^ 
For  four  years  a  town  treasurer  was  the  only  officer.  It 
had  been  thought  necessary  to  recognize  in  the  compact, 
just  recited,  the  same  right  as  to  the  selection  of  associates 
which  had  been  exercised  in  the  expulsion  of  the  leader 
by  the  Massachusetts  people.  But  experience  alone  could 
refute  some  more  exalted  theories,  which  a  generous  en- 
thusiasm had  so  confidently  embraced..  Roger  Williams 
was  not  the  first  man,  nor  the  last,  to  discover  that  it  is 
one  thing  to  conduct  an  opposition,  and  another  thing  to 
carry  on  a  government.     The  time  came  when  he  was  fain 

1  Forty-five  years  later,  "Williams  de-  deed  in  1637  (Ibid.,  18),  and  Williams's 

posed:    "I  declare  to  posterity,  that.  Initial  Deed  in  1638  (Ibid.,  19),  make 

were  it  not  for  the  favor  that  God  gave  the  same  representation.     Probabl}-  all 

me  with  Canonicus,  none  of  these  parts,  that  WiUiams  meant  to  say,  at  the  later 

no,  not  Rhode  Island,  had  been  pur-  periods,  was,  that  the  purchase-money 

chased  or  obtained  ;   for  I  never  got  alone  would  not  haAe  induced  the  In- 

anything  out  of  Canonicus,  but  by  gift."  dians  to  make  the  sale. 

(R.  I.  Col.  Rec,  25.)     The   Cunjirma-  2  For  a  little   while,  everybody   in 

tory  Deed  in  1661  (Ibid.,  23)  uses  simi-  Providence  seems  to  have  been  neigh- 

lar  language.     But  in  the  latter  instru-  hor  (Ibid.,  17),  as  everybody  afterwards 

ment  W^illiams  also  recites  (Ibid.,  22)  was   citizen   in   France,  and  is  friend 

that  the  lands  were  "  purchased"  by  him  among  the  Quakers. 

ofCanonicus  and  Mlantonomo;  and  their  3  Ibid.,  14. 


424  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

to  proclaim  his  abhorrence  of  "  such  an  infinite  liberty  of 
conscience  "  ^  as  was  claimed  by  some  who  had  followed 
his  steps,  and  taken  up  their  lot  with  him  in  the  new 
plantation.  And  he  well  illustrated  the  case  by  the  con- 
dition of  a  ship  at  sea,  requiring,  for  the  common  safety, 
authority  on  one  part  and  submission  on  the  other. 

Scarcely  any  records  of  the  settlement  at  Providence  for 
the  first  ten  years  are  extant.     Such  as  were  made  arc  be- 
lieved to  have  been  mostly  destroyed  when  the 

1C7G.  ,  ... 

Indians    set   fire    to    the  town  in   Philip's  war. 
Among  the  fragments  which  remain,  two,  besides  what 
have  been  already  referred  to,  are  of  principal  importance. 
1638.      One  is  a  grant,  to  thirteen  associates,   of  "  the 
Oct.  8.     meadow  ground  at  Pawtuxet,"  lying  west  of  the 
original  settlement,  on  the  other  side  of  the  Bay ;   a  pro- 
ceeding which  was  followed  by  important  consequences, 
to  be  explained  hereafter.     The  other  exhibits  the  "  Form 
1C40.      of  Government,"    devised  by  four  "  arbitrators  " 
July  27.     chosen  for  the  purpose,  and  subscribed  by  thirty- 
nine  freemfen  as  the  rule  of  their  association.    It  contains 
scarcely  anything  except  a  provision  for  the  adjustment  of 
disputes  through  a  permanent  board  of  "  five  disposers," 
to  be  chosen  by  the  inhabitants,  and  the  subsidiary  ar- 
rangements  suitable   for  carrying   this   plan   into   efi'ect. 
In  his  new  home   Williams's    own  restless   career  took 
i(,39.      new  directions.     He  became  dissatisfied  with  his 
March,     baptism,    and   was   baptized   anew.       In   a   few 
months,  he  distrusted  the  last  administration  of  that  ordi- 

1  Letter  of  Williams  to  the  Town  of  temptuous  unto  all  their  superiors,  in 

Providence,    in    Knowles's    IMenioir   of    using  thou  to  everybody I  have 

Roger  Williams  (279).  —  When  the  therefore  publicly  declared  myself,  that 
Quakers  came  in  AVilliams's  way,  he  was  a  due  and  moderate  restraint  and  pun- 
very  impatient  of  what  he  thought  their  ishing  of  these  incivilities,  though  pre- 
ill-manners.  "  These  simple  reformers  tending  conscience,  is  so  far  from  per- 
are  extremely  ridiculous  in  giving  thnu  secution,  properly  so  called,  that  it  is  a 
and  thee  to  everybody,  which  our  nation  duty  and  command  of  God  unto  all 
commonly  gives  to  familiars  only,  and  mankind."  (George  Fox  digged  out 
they  are  insufferably  proud  and  con-  of  his  Burrowes,  pp.  199,  200.) 


Chap.  X.] 


PROVIDENCE. 


425 


nance,  and  waited  for  a  new  apostolic  commission  to  give 
it  validity.^  But  the  vital  part  of  religion  never  deserted 
him.  However  his  theories  shifted,  he  never  ceased  to 
be  a  single-hearted  lover  of  God  and  men. 


1  "  Mr.  Williams was  rebap- 

tized  by  one  Ilolyman,  a  poor  man,  late 
of  Salem.  Then  Mr.  AVilliams  rebap- 
tized  him  and  some  ten  more."  (Win- 
throp,  I.  293.)  "  At  Providence,  mat- 
ters went  after  the  old  manner.  Mr. 
Williams  and  many  of  his  company,  a 
few  months  since,  were  in  all  haste  re- 
baptized,  and  denied  communion  with 
all  others;  and  now  he  was  come  to 
question  his  second  baptism,  not  being 
able  to  derive  the  authority  of  it  from 
the  Apostles,  otherwise  than  by  the 
ministers  of  England,  whom  he  judged 
to  be  ill  authority,  so  as  he  conceived 
God  would  raise  up  some  apostolic 
power;  therefore  he  bent  himself  that 


way."  (Ibid.,  306.)  —  "  I  walked  with 
him  in  the  Baptists'  way  about  three  or 
four  months,  in  which  time  he  brake 
from  the  society,  and  declared  at  large 
the  ground  and  reasons  of  it,  —  that 
their  baptism  could  not  be  right,  be- 
cause it  was  not  administered  by  an 
apostle.  After  that,  he  set  himself 
upon  a  way  of  seeking  (with  two  or 
three  of  them  that  had  dissented  with 
him)  by  way  of  preaching  and  praying ; 
and  there  he  continued  a  year  or  two, 
till  two  of  the  three  left  him."  (Let- 
ter of  Richard  Scott  in  George  Fox's 
"  New-England  Fire-Brand  Quenched," 
247.) 


36* 


CHAPTEH   XI. 

The  change  of  rulers  in  Massachusetts  at  the  depo- 
sition of  Winthrop  had  consisted  merely  in  the  promo- 
tion of  two  of  his  associates  in  the  magistracy,  while  he 
was  still  their  colleague  in  the  Board  of  Assistants.  The 
government  continued  to  be  conducted  according  to  the 
same  principles  and  methods  as  during  the  four  years  of 
his  wise  and  upright  administration.  While  the  intelli- 
gence from  England  caused  great  uneasiness,  the  means 
and  the  confidence  of  the  colonists  were  increased  by  the 

i(-34.      arrival  of  large  numbers  of  their  friends.^     "  Five 
September,  i^^^ndrcd  pouuds  more  was  raised  towards  fortifi- 
cations,"- almost  immediately  after  the  first    large   ex- 
penditure for  that  purpose. 

The  question  which  has  been  referred  to,  respecting  the 
obliteration  of  the  cross  of  St.  George  from  the  royal  en- 
Mutiintionof  slgu,  aroso  during  the  year  of  Dudley's  adminis- 
the^EMghsh    ^^.r^^^Qj^^      j^^  r^  Court   of  Assistants,   "  complaint 

Nov.  5.     -vvas  made  by  some  of  the  country, that  the 

ensign  at  Salem  was  defaced ;  namely,  one  part  of  the  red 
cross  taken  out.  Upon  this  an  attachment  was  awarded 
against  Richard  Davenport,  ensign-bearer,  to  appear  at 
the  next  Court  to  answer.  INIuch  matter  was  made  of 
this,  as  fearing  it  would  be  taken  as  an  act  of  rebellion, 
or  of  like  high  nature,  in  defacing  the  king's  colors; 
though  the  truth  were,  it  was  done  upon  this  opinion, 
that  the  red  cross  was  given  to  the  king  of  England  by 
the  Pope,  as  an  ensign  of  victory,  and  so  a  superstitious 
thing,  and  a  relic  of  Antichrist."  ^ 

1  Winthrop,   I.   135,  143,   149,  ICl,         ~  Ibiil,  144. 
1C4,  109,  190,  205.  3  Ibid.,  146.  Sec  above,  p.  409. 


Chap.  XL]  MASSACHUSETTS.  427 

In  the  existing  state  of  relations  with  England,  the  busi- 
ness was  critical.  The  next  step  taken  in  relation  to  it  is 
thus  recorded  :  "  The  Assistants  met  at  the  Gov- 

Nov.  27. 

ernor's,  to  advise  about  the  defacing  of  the  cross 
in  the  ensign  at  Salem,  where,  taking  advice  with  some 
of  the  ministers,  we  agreed  to  write  to  Mr.  Downing  in 
England  of  the  truth  of  the  matter,  under  all  our  hands, 
that,  if  occasion  were,  he  should  show  it  in  our  excuse ; 
for  therein  we  expressed  our  dislike  of  the  thing,  and  our 
purpose  to  punish  the  offenders,  yet  with  as  much  wari- 
ness as  we  might,  being  doubtful  of  the  lawful  use  of  the 
cross  in  an  ensign,  though  we  were  clear  that  fact,  as 
concerning  the  matter,  was  very  unlawful."  ^  After  three 
months'  further  deliberation,  "  Mr.  Endicott  was  1035. 
called  to  answer  for  defacing  the  cross  in  the  en-  ^^^""^  ^• 
sign ;  but  because  the  Court  could  not  agree  about  the 
thing,  whether  the  ensigns  should  be  laid  by,  in  regard 
that  many  refused  to  follow  them,  the  whole  cause  was 
deferred  till  the  next  General  Court,  and  the  Commission- 
ers for  Military  Affairs  gave  order  in  the  mean  time  that 
all  the  ensigns  should  be  laid  aside."-  It  is  worthy  of 
remark,  as  an  indication  of  the  sense  entertained  of  the 
delicacy  of  the  question,  that  in  the  j)ublic  record  no 
notice  is  taken  of  these  proceedings. 

The  eccentricity  of  another  prominent  citizen  troubled 
for  a  short  time  the  quiet  of  Dudley's  government.  Israel 
Stouofhton  was  a  member,  for  Dorchester,  of  the  ,     , 

O  '  '  Israel 

first  General  Court  that  admitted  Deputies,  hav-  stoughton. 

,      ,  -  ,_  ,  -  1634. 

mg   probably    come    to    Massachusetts   the    year 
before.     A  fortune,  exceeding  that  of  most  of  his  neigh- 
bors, may  have  made  him  impatient  of  his  inferior  of- 
ficial position.     At  a   Court   of  Assistants,   "  he      1635. 
was  questioned  for  denying  the  magistracy  among   '^'"''''  ^ 

1  Winthrop,    I.     150.  —  Emanuel     setts  Company,  and  came  to  Massachu- 
Downing,  who  had  married  Winthrop's     setts  in  1G37  or  1638. 
sister,  was  a  member  of  the  Massachu-        2  Ibid.,  15G. 


428  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAKD.  [Book  I. 

US,  affirming  that  the  power  of  the  Governor  was  but 
ministerial,  &c.  He  had  also  much  opposed  the  Magis- 
trates, and  slighted  them,  and  used  many  weak  arguments 
against  the  negative  voice,  as  himself  acknowledged  upon 
record."  ^  Having,  moreover,  "  written  a  certain  book 
which  had  occasioned  much  trouble  and  offence  to  the 
Court,  he  did  desire  of  the  Court  that  the  said  book  might 
forthwith  be  burned,  as  being  weak  and  offensive."  But 
his  submission  did  not  save  him  from  being  "  disenabled 
for  bearing  any  public  office  in  the  commonwealth,  within 
this  jurisdiction,  for  the  space  of  three  years,  for  affirming 
the  Assistants  were  no  Magistrates."^  Those  were  no 
times  for  allowing  the  authority  of  the  local  government 
to  be  called  in  question. 

Dudley  did  not  possess  the  qualities  which  attract 
popular  favor,  so  much  as  those  which  justify  confidence. 
John  Haynes  But  pi'obably  it  was  not  owing  to  this  defect  that 

ehosen  Gov-     i    •  •  /~i  1'       -j.     i    j_ 

grnor.  his  service  as  (jovernor  was  limited  to  one  year. 

May  6.  q^j-^g  freemcu  intended  to  make  it  evident,  that 
they  did  not  forget  Cotton's  lesson  concerning  the  right 
of  permanence  in  office.  It  has  been  mentioned  that  the 
Governor  now  chosen  was  John  Haynes,  a  person  des- 
tined to  fill  an  important  place  in  the  primeval  history  of 
New  England.  Little  is  recorded  of  him  before  his  emi- 
gration, except  that  he  was  a  gentleman  of  large  estate  in 
the  county  of  Essex.  He  had  come  to  America  in  company 
with  John  Cotton,  and  at  the  first  election  after  his  arrival 
had  been  chosen  an  Assistant,  in  Avhich  office  he  had  now 
served  a  year.^  Richard  Bellingham,  who  had  arrived  still 
Richard  more  recently,  was  elected  to  the  second  place. 
Dpp.'ty/"''  Bellingham,  who  had  been  educated  a  lawyer, 
Governor,      j^^^^  ^|j^^j  ^^^  ^f^^^  ^f  Recordcr  in  the  English 

Boston,  and  was  one  of  the  twenty-six  freemen  named  in 
the  charter,  which  he  was  thought  to  have  hatl  a  hand  in 

1  Winthrop,  I.  155.  3  Scc  above,  pp.  3G/,  378,  410. 

2  Mass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  135,  136. 


Chap.  XL]  MASSACHUSETTS.  429 

framing.  Atherton  Hough,  who  had  come  over  with 
Haynes,  and  Richard  Dummer,  who  had  been  at  Roxbury 
three  years,  were  chosen  Assistants.  The  other  Magis- 
trates were  the  same  as  in  the  preceding  year,  except  that 
Endicott  and  Ludlow  were  dismissed  to  private  life,  the 
former  on  account  of  his  proceeding  in  relation  to  the 
king's  flag,  the  latter  because  of  his  having  indiscreetly 
resented  the  promotion  of  Haynes  over  him.  "  He  pro- 
tested against  the  election  of  Governor  as  void,  for  that 
the  Deputies  of  the  several  towns  had  agreed  upon  the 
election  before  they  came,"  &c.  His  objections  to  such 
electioneering  were  thought  worthy  of  consideration. 
"  This  was  generally  discussed,  and  the  election  adjudged 
good."^  He  had  yet  another  way  to  show  his  sense  of 
wrong,  and  "  at  his  own  request  was  dismissed  from  the 
charge  of  overseeing  the  fortification  on  Castle  Island." 
He  was  still  for  the  present  one  of  the  Military  Commis- 
sioners, but  from  this  place  also  he  was  discharged  after  a 
few  months.^ 

The  elections  at  this  Court  had  been  made  "  by  papers." 
The  names  of  candidates  for  the  two  highest  places  were 
written  on  the  ballots.  For  the  choice  of  Assist-  Elections 
ants,  the  names  were  successively  announced  by  ^^  ''^"°^ 
the  Governor,  and  the  freemen  signified  their  approbation 
by  an  inscribed  vote,  and  their  dissent  by  a  blank.  After 
a  short  experience  of  Deputies  in  the  General  Court,  it 
seemed  desirable  that  the  freemen  should  have  the  largest 
liberty  in  their  selection,  and  it  was  ordered  that  thence- 
forward they  should  "  be  elected  by  papers."  ^  The  rich 
and  liberal  Governor,  "  in  his  speech  to  the  people  after 
his  election,  declared  his  purpose  to  spare  their  charge 
towards  his  allowance  this  year,  partly  in  respect  of  their 
love  showed  towards  him,  and  partly  for  that  he  observed 
how  much  the  people  had  been  pressed  lately  with  public 
charges,  which  the  poorer  sort  did  much  groan  under."  ^ 

1  Winthrop,  I.  158.  3  Ibid.,  157. 

2  Mass.  Col.  Kec,  I.  145,  161.  *  Winthrop,  I.  159. 


430  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

"  Mr.  Endicott  was  called  into  question  about  defacing 

the  cross  in  the  ensign."     The  business  was  taken  up  with 

crreat  solemnitv.     A  committee,  composed  of  four 

Proceedings     "  •'  i 

in  respect      of  tlic  Magistrates  and  of  one  freeman  from  each 

to  tlie  flag.  1    Ti 

town,  was  directed  to  deliberate  and  report  upon 
it.  "  They  found  his  oifence  to  be  great,  namely,  rash  and 
without  discretion,  taking  upon  him  more  authority  than 
he  had,  and  not  seeking  advice  of  the  Court,  &c. ;  unchar- 
itable, in  that  he,  judging  the  cross,  &c.  to  be  a  sin,  did 
content  himself  to  have  it  reformed  at  Salem,  not  taking 
care  that  others  might  be  brought  out  of  it  also ;  laying 
a  blemish  also  upon  the  rest  of  the  Magistrates,  as  if  they 
would  suffer  idolatry,  &c.,  and  giving  occasion  to  the  state 
of  England  to  think  ill  of  us  ;  —  for  which  they  adjudged 
him  worthy  admonition,  and  to  be  disabled  for  one  year 
from  bearing  any  public  office ;  declining  any  heavier  sen- 
tence, because  they  were  persuaded  he  did  it  out  of  tender- 
ness of  conscience,  and  not  of  any  evil  intent."  ^  The 
sentence  of  incapacity  was  accordingly  passed.  The  rea- 
sons assigned  for  it  disclose  a  singular  embarrassment  in 
the  minds  of  the  committee.  They  were  evidently  per- 
plexed between  their  apprehension  of  the  effect  in  Eng- 
land of  Endicott's  act,  and  a  consciousness  of  sympathy, 
on  their  own  part  and  on  that  of  their  constituents,  with 
the  feelings  which  had  prompted  it.  Nor  is  it  unreason- 
able to  believe,  that,  at  this  important  juncture,  political 
considerations,  quite  as  much  as  religious  which  could 
more  conveniently  be  avowed,  occasioned  the  scruples 
about  the  use  of  the  royal  flag. 

The  question  was  not  to  be  immediately  settled.  For 
the  present  it  was  postponed,  "it  being  proiiounded  to  turn 
the  cross  in  the  ensign  to  the  red  and  white  rose,  &;c., 
and  every  man  was  to  deal  with  his  neighbors,  to  still 
their  minds  who  stood  so  stiff  for  the  cross,  until  we 
should  fully  agree  about  it,  as  was  expected,  because  the 

1  Winthrop,  I.  158.     Mass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  146. 


Chap.  XI.] 


MASSACHUSETTS. 


431 


ministers  had  promised  to  take  pains  about  it,  and  to 
write  into  England,  to  have  the  judgments  of  the  most 
wise  and  godly  there." -^  In  the  course  of  the  year,  a  com- 
promise was  made.  "  It  was  referred  to  the  Military  Com- 
missioners to  appoint  colors  for  every  company,  who  did 
accordingly,  and  left  out  the  cross  in  all  of  them,  appoint- 
ing the  king's  arms  to  be  put  into  that  of  Castle  Island."^ 
At  Castle  Island,  the  royal  colors  would  be  seen  by  the 
shipping,  which  accordingly  would  be  less  likely  to  carry 
a  damaging  report  to  England.  The  castle,  nevertheless, 
continued  to  assert  the  local  dignity.  "  A  ship  belong- 
ing to  Sir  Thomas  Wentworth,  deputy  of  Ireland,"  was 
coming  into  Boston  harbor,  when  "the  lieutenant  of  the 
fort  went  aboard  her,  and  made  her  strike  her  flag."  The 
master  complained  to  the  Magistrates,  who,  on  the  ground 
that  "  the  fort  had  then  no  colors  abroad,"  directed  their 
officer  to  make  an  apology.^ 

The  tendency  to  well-defined  and  settled  institutions 
was  indicated  by  several  measures  adopted  towards  the 
close  of  Haynes's  administration.  The  shape  and  Legislative 
limits  to  be  assumed  by  the  Colony  were  provided  p'"^^^*^'"^^- 
for  by  a  rule  empowering  the  majority  of  the  March  3. 
Magistrates  "  from  time  to  time  to  dispose  of  the  sitting 
down  of  men  in  any  new  plantations,"  and  forbidding  new 
settlements  to  be  made  without  their  consent.^  "  Whereas 
the  most  Aveighty  affairs  of  this  body"  were  now  "brought 
into  such  a  way  and  method  as  there  would  not  hence- 
forth be  need  of  so  many  General  Courts  to  be  kept  as 
formerly,"  their  number  was  reduced  to  two  in  each  year.^ 
It  was  necessary  to  lighten  the  pressure  of  judicial  duty 
upon  the  Magistrates,  and  in  addition  to  quarterly  courts, 
to  be  held  by  the  whole  board  in  Boston,  local  courts 
were  appointed  to  be  held  also  four  times  in  each  year, 


1  Wintln-op,  I.  160. 

2  Il)i(l.,  180. 

3  n.id.,  186. 

*  ]\rass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  167, 


5  Ibid.,  169.  Tliis  usage  continued 
till  1831,  -when  one  annual  session  was 
substituted  by  an  amendment  of  the 
State  Constitution. 


432  HISTORY  OF  KEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

the  places  being  Ipswich,  Salem,  Newtown,  and  Boston. 
These  tribunals  were  to  consist  of  "  such  Magistrates  as 
should  be  dwelling  in  or  near  the  said  towns,  and  such 
other  persons  of  worth  as  should  from  time  to  time  be 
appointed  by  the  General  Court "  from  a  list  of  candidates 
to  be  nominated  by  the  several  towns  within  the  judicial 
jurisdiction.  They  had  power  to  "  try  all  civil  causes  where- 
of the  debt  or  damage  should  not  exceed  ten  pounds,  and 
all  criminal  causes  not  concerning  life,  member,  or  banish- 
ment." Each  of  them  was  constituted  of  five  judges,  and 
an  appeal  lay  from  them  to  the  next  quarterly  court  of 

1635.     Magistrates.^      Another  improvement  of  the  legal 
Sept.  1.     administration  had  recently  been  made,  in  the  in- 
troduction of  presentments  by  a  grand  jury.^ 

A  rule  was  adopted  to  control  the  formation  of  church- 
es. To  reflecting  minds  their  theoretical  independence, 
Formation  both  of  cach  othcr  and  of  any  authority  over 
of  churches,  ^ji^jji  ^11,  could  uot  liavo  failed  to  present  itself 
in  new  lights  from  the  time  when  the  franchise  ofthe 
commonwealth  was  attached  to  church-membership.  Per- 
sons were  received  to  the  several  churches  by  the  con- 
sent of  the  officers  and  members,  on  a  relation  of  their  re- 
ligious experience,  or  other  satisfactory  evidence  of  their 
Christian  character.  They  were  then  admitted  to  the 
Lord's  Supper,  and  their  children  to  baptism.  Thus  it 
belonged  to  the  several  churches  to  confer  the  franchise  of 
the  state,  for  no  person  could  be  a  freeman  without  being 
a  church-member ;  and  though,  to  make  a  man  a  freeman, 
a  form  had  still  to  be  gone  through  with,  —  an  oath  to  be 
taken,  and  a  vote  of  the  General  Court  to  be  passed,  — 
yet,  in  point  of  fact,  it  would  very  rarely  hapj)en  that  a 
communicant  in  a  church  would  fail  to  be  a  freeman  of 
the  Company.^ 

This  being  so,  the  question  must  have  soon  occurred, 
what  safeguard  for  political  integrity  existed  at  the  source 

J  Mass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  169.  3  See  Cotton's  Answers  to  "  Certain 

2  Wintbrop,  I.  198.  Proposals,"  &c.,  in  Hutchinson,  I.  435. 


Chap.  XL]  MASSACHUSETTS.  433 

of  political  power.  "Who  was  to  keep  the  keepers  1  That 
by  the  law  of  franchise  a  close  relation  had  been  estab- 
lished between  church  and  state  was  undeniable,  however 
little  of  the  extent  of  that  relation  had  been  discerned  at 
the  time.  A  law  forbidding  the  formation  of  any  church 
without  the  public  approbation  conveyed  through  the 
Magistrates,  would  tend  to  secure  an  accordance  between 
the  sentiments  of  the  church-member  and  what  were  es- 
teemed the  vital  principles  of  the  commonwealth.  It 
would  thus  be  but  a  fit  complement  of  the  previous  en- 
actment which  had  invested  the  church-member  with 
political  power.  The  freemen  intended  that  their  body 
should  be  a  numerous  corporation.  But  they  intended 
that  it  should  be  also  a  close  and  self-renewing  corpora- 
tion. They  saw  not  how  in  any  other  way  it  could  achieve 
the  beneficent  purposes  for  which  it  was  created.  If  a 
church  should  be  formed  of  persons  alien  to  those  pur- 
poses, it  would  subsist  in  the  commonwealth  only  as  a 
nursery  of  internal  foes.  Amidst  the  public  dangers  of 
the  period,  the  subject  could  not  fail  to  force  itself  upon 
attention ;  and,  after  a  year's  consideration,-^  a  ic3r. 
law  was  passed,  the  special  intent  of  which  is  ^'"=''3- 
manifested  by  its  last  provision.     It  was  as  follows  :  — 

"  Forasmuch  as  it  hath  been  found  by  sad  experience, 
that  much  trouble  and  disturbance  hath  happened  both 
to  the  church  and  civil  state  by  the  officers  and  members 
of  some  churches  which  have  been  gathered  within  the 
limits  of  this  jurisdiction  in  an  undue  manner,  and  not 
with  such  public  approbation  as  were  meet,  it  is  therefore 
ordered,  that  all  persons  are  to  take  notice  that  this  Court 
doth  not,  nor  will  hereafter,  approve  of  any  such  com- 

1  "  This  Court  [March  4,1635]  doth  and  then  to  consider  how  far  tho  Magis- 

entreat  of  the  elders  and  brethren  of  trates  are  bound  to  interpose  for  the 

every   church   within  the  jurisdiction,  preservation    of   that    uniformity    and 

that   they  will   consult   and    advise  of  peace   of  the   churches."    (Mass.   Col- 

one  uniform  order  of  disciphne  in  the  Rec,  I.  142,  143.) 
churches,  agreeable  to  the  Scriptures^ 
VOL.  I.                                37 


434  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

panics  of  men  as  shall  henceforth  join  in  any  pretended 
way  of  church-fellowship,  without  they  shall  first  acquaint 
the  Magistrates,  and  the  elders  of  the  greater  part  of  the 
churches  in  this  jurisdiction,  with  their  intentions,  and 
have  their  approbation  herein.  And  further  it  is  ordered, 
that  no  person,  being  a  member  of  any  church  which 
shall  hereafter  be  gathered  without  the  approbation  of 
the  Magistrates  and  the  greater  part  of  the  said  churches, 
shall  be  admitted  to  the  freedom  of  this  commonwealth." 

Another  measure  of  the  same  General  Court  was  a 
definition  of  the  powers  of  towns,  giving  the  first  legis- 
lative authority  to  that  municipal  system  of  New  Eng- 
land which  has  survived  with  such  happy  results  to  the 
Functions  prcscut  day.  In  consideration  of  the  fact,  that 
of  towns.  u  particular  towns  have  many  things  which  con- 
cern only  themselves,  and  the  ordering  of  their  own  af- 
fairs, and  disposing  of  business  in  their  own  town,"  it  was 
"  ordered,  that  the  freemen  of  every  town,  or  the  major 
part  of  them,  shall  only  have  power  to  dispose  of  their 
own  lands  and  woods,  with  all  the  privileges  and  appurte- 
nances of  said  towns,  to  grant  lots,  and  make  such  orders 
as  may  concern  the  well-ordering  of  their  own  towns,  not 
repugnant  to  the  laws  and  orders  established  by  the  Gen- 
eral Court."  They  were  authorized  to  impose  fines  "not 
exceeding  the  sum  of  twenty  shillings,"  and  "  to  choose 
their  own  particular  officers,  as  constables,  surveyors  for 
the  highways,  and  the  like."  ^     To  keep  these  communi- 

1G35.      ties  compact,  for  their  greater  security,  it  had  bc- 
sept. 3.    £Qj,g  been  ordered,  "that  hereafter  no  dwelling- 
house  should  be  built  above  half  a  mile  from  the  meeting- 
house, in  any  new  plantation " ;  ^  and  the  rule  was  soon 
after  extended  to  all  the  towns  in  the  jurisdiction.^     In 
the  following  year,  the  right  of  representation  was  roughly 
1C3G.       apportioned  to  the  towns,  according  to  the  amount 
Sept. 8.     Qf  their  population.     "It  was  ordered,  that  herc- 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  172.  2  ma.,  157.  3  Ibid.,  181. 


CiiAP.  XL]  MASSACHUSETTS.  435 

after  no  town  in  the  plantation  that  hath  not  ten  freemen 
resident  in  it  shall  send  any  Deputy  to  the  General  Court  ; 
those  that  have  abo\'t  ten  and  under  twenty,  not  above  one ; 
betwixt  twenty  and  forty,  not  above  two ;  and  those  that 
have  above  forty,  three  if  they  will,  but  not  above  " ;  and 
the  towns  were  directed  to  "  take  care  to  order  and  dispose 
of  all  sinofle  persons  within  their  town  to  service, 

,  .  ,    .  .     ,  ^  Dec.  13. 

or  otherwise,"  subject  to   a  right  of  parties  ag- 
grieved by  their  action  "  to  appeal  to  the  Governor  and 
Council,  or  the  Court."  ^ 

In  the  autumn  v/hich  followed  the  election  of     1535. 
Haynes  to  be  Governor,  three  persons  of  special     *^'^''  '^• 
note  arrived  in  Massachusetts.     A  previous  visit  of  John 
Winthrop  the   younger  to   this   country   has   been  men- 
tioned.^    When  he  first  came  over,  in  the  year      ig3i 
after  his  father,  Avith  others  of  the  family  who  had  wimjirop 
been  left  behind,  he  Avas  twenty-five  or  twenty-six  "'°  younger- 
years  old.     After  an  exemplary  and  studious  youth,  passed 
partly  at  Trinity  College  in  the  University  of  Dublin,  he 
had  accomplished  himself  by  travelling  on  the  continent  of 
Europe.     He  was  chosen  an  Assistant  at  the  election  next 
following  his  first  arrival,  and  continued  to  be  annually 
rechosen  to  that  place,  even  when  he  had  gone  back  to 
Europe,  as  he  did  after  more  than  two  years'  resi-      1633. 
dence,  in  which  time  he  had  begun  a  plantation  at    ^^^''''^^ 
Ipswich.     During  his  absence,  he  had  now  "  passed  into 
Scotland,  and  so  through  the  North  of  England ;   and  all 
the  way  he  met  with  persons  of  quality,  whose  thoughts 
were  towards  New  England,  who   observed  his   coming 
among  them  as  a  special  providence  of  God."  ^ 

One  of  Winthrop's  companions  was  a  person  destined 
for  a  short  time  to  exercise  an  important  agency  in  the 
affairs  of  New  England,  and  subsequently  to  act  a 

,  .  ,  .         Henry  Vane. 

scarcely  secondary  part  on  a  much  more  conspic- 
uous theatre.      This  was  the  young  Henry  Vane.     His 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  178,  186.  3  Winthrop,  I  173. 

2  See  above,  p.  355. 


436  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

father,  the  representative  of  an  ancient  line,  and  himself 
experienced  in  high  public  employments  in  the  present 
and  the  late  reign,  was  at  this  j^eriod^a  Privy  Counsellor 
and  one  of  the  Secretaries  of  State.  The  son,  now  twenty- 
three  years  old,  "being  a  young  gentleman  of  excellent 
parts,  had  been  employed  by  his  father,  when  he  was  am- 
bassador, in  foreign  affairs,  yet,  being  called  to  the  obedi- 
ence of  the  Gospel,  forsook  the  honors  and  preferments 
of  the  court,  to  enjoy  the  ordinances  of  Christ  in  their 
purity  here.  His  father,  being  averse  to  this  way  (as  no 
way  savoring  the  power  of  religion),  would  hardly  have 
consented  to  his  coming  hither,  but  that,  acquainting  the 
king  with  his  son's  disposition  and  desire,  he  commanded 
him  to  send  him  hither,  and  gave  him  license  for  three 
years'  stay  here."  ^ 

The  third  personage  in  this  distinguished  trio  was  the 
minister,  Hugh  Peter.  He  had  been  educated  at  Trinity 
College,  Cambridge,  and  had  subsequently  been 
lecturer  at  St.  Sepulchre's  church,  in  London, 
whence  he  had  been  driven,  by  the  persecution  under 
Laud,  to  Holland.  After  six  years'  service  as  pastor  of  a 
church  in  Rotterdam,  he  was  induced  by  annoyances  from 
the  English  ambassador  to  resolve  to  join  the  Colony  in 
Massachusetts,  with  which  he  was  the  better  acquainted 
from  having  been  a  member  of  the  Company  before  leaving 
England,  and  a  liberal  contributor  to  its  stock.  He  was 
soon  inducted  into  the  place  lately  vacated  by  Williams  in 
the  church  at  Salem.  He  was  a  man  of  great  talents,  and 
of  restless  and  various  activity.  He  saw  at  once  the  com- 
mercial capacities  of  the  country,  and  set  himself  to  work 
to  develop  them.^ 

An  incident   presently  occurred  which  illustrates  the 


1  Winthrop,  I.  1 70.  sum  of  money  to  be  raised  to  set  on 

2  lie  •♦  went  from  place  to  place,  la-  foot  the  fishing  business,  and  wrote  into 
boring  both  publicly  and  privately  to  England  to  raise  as  nmch  more."  (Win- 
raise  up  men  to  a  public  frame  of  spirit,  throp,  I.  173,  17G  ;  couip.  185.) 

and  so  prevailed  as  he  procured  a  good 


Chap.  XI.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  437 

characters    of  a   group    of  important   men.      Vane    and 
Peter  had   scarcely   been   three   months   in    the  conference 
country,  before  they  undertook  to  revise  the  ad-  ff^'^  lead- 


ers. 


ministration  of  the  government.     "  Findinor  some      i^se. 


^V.,V,..^^.V..XV.  ^     ..XVX.^Xj^ 


Jan.  18. 


distraction  in  the  commonwealth,  arising  from 
some  difference  in  judgment,  and  withal  some  alienation 
of  affection,  among  the  Magistrates  and  some  other  per- 
sons of  quality,  and  that  hereby  factions  began  to  grow 
among  the  people,  some  adhering  more  to  the  old  Gov- 
ernor, Mr.  AVinthrop,  and  others  to  the  late  Governor, 
Mr.  Dudley,  —  the  former  carrying  matters  with  more 
lenity,  and  the  latter  with  more  severity,  —  they  procured 
a  meeting,  at  Boston,  of  the  Governor,  Deputy,  Mr.  Cot- 
ton, Mr.  Hooker,  Mr.  Wilson,  and  there  was  present  Mr. 
Winthrop,  Mr.  Dudley,  and  themselves ;  where,  after  the 
Lord  had  been  sought,  Mr.  Vane  declared  the  occasion  of 
this  meeting."  And  he  "  desired  all  present  to  take  up  a 
resolution  to  deal  freely  and  openly  with  the  parties,  and 
they  with  each  other,  that  nothing  might  be  left  in  their 
breasts  which  might  break  out  to  any  jar  or  difference 
hereafter  ;  which  they  promised  to  do." 

Winthrop  was  self-possessed  and  at  the  same  time  con- 
ciliating, as  usual.  He  said,  "  that  when  it  pleased  Mr. 
Vane  to  acquaint  him  with  what  he  had  observed,  of  the 
dispositions  of  men's  minds  inclining  to  the  said  faction, 
&c.,  it  was  very  strange  to  him,  professing  solemnly  that 
he  knew  not  of  any  breach  between  his  brother  Dudley 
and  himself,  since  they  Avere  reconciled  long  since."  He 
knew  of  no  alienation  from  him,  "  save  that,  of  late,  he 
had  observed  that  some  new-comers  had  estranged  them- 
selves from  him,  since  they  went  to  dwell  at  Newtown, 
and  so  desired  all  the  company,  that,  if  they  had  seen 
anything  amiss  in  his  government  or  otherwise,  they 
would  deal  freely  and  faithfully  with  him  ;  and,  for  his 
part,  he  promised  to  take  it  in  good  part,  and  would  en- 
deavor, by  God's  grace,  to  amend  it."     Dudley  said,  "  that, 

37* 


438  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

for  his  part,  he  came  thither  a  mere  patient,  not  with  any 
intent  to  charge  his  brother  Winthrop  with  anything;  for 
though  there  had  been  formerly  some  differences  and 
breaches  between  them,  yet  they  had  been  healed,  and  for 
his  part  he  was  not  willing  to  renew  them  again,  and  so 
he  left  it  to  others  to  utter  their  own  complaints." 

Haynes  professed  his  unwillingness  to  give  offence  to 
Winthrop  ;  "  and  he  hoped  that,  considering  what  the  end 
of  this  meeting  was,  he  would  take  it  in  good  part,  if  he 
did  deal  openly  and  freely,  as  his  manner  ever  was.  Then 
he  spake  of  one  or  two  passages,  wherein  he  conceived 
that  he  dealt  too  remissly  in  point  of  justice.  To  which 
Mr.  Winthrop  answered,  that  his  speeches  and  carriage 
had  been  in  part  mistaken ;  but  withal  professed  that  it 
was  his  judgment,  that,  in  the  infancy  of  plantation,  jus- 
tice should  be  administered  with  more  lenity  than  in  a 
settled  state,  because  then  people  were  more  apt  to  trans- 
gress, partly  of  ignorance  of  new  laws  and  orders,  partly 
through  oppression  of  business  and  other  straits ;  but,  if 
it  might  be  made  clear  to  him  that  it  was  an  erro^-,  he 
would  be  ready  to  take  up  a  stricter  course.  Then  the 
ministers  were  desired  to  consider  of  the  question  by  the 
next  morning,  and  to  set  down  a  rule  in  the  case." 

The  ministers  differed  from  Winthrop.  Their  judg- 
ment, delivered  the  next  morning,  was,  "  that  strict  dis- 
cipline, both  in  criminal  offences  and  in  martial  affairs, 
was  more  needful  in  jilantations  than  in  a  settled  state, 
as  tending  to  the  honor  and  safety  of  the  Gospel.  Where- 
upon Mr.  AVinthrop  acknowledged  that  he  was  convinced 
that  he  had  failed  in  overmuch  lenity  and  remissness,  and 
would  endeavor,  by  God's  assistance,  to  take  a  more  strict 
course  hereafter.  Whereupon  there  was  a  renewal  of  love 
amongst  them,  and  articles  drawn  "  to  regulate  the  future 
course  of  administration.  It  was  resolved,  "  that  there 
should  be  more  strictness  used  in  civil  government  and 
military  discipline;   that  the  Magistrates  should,  as  far  as 


Chap.  XL]  MASSACHUSETTS.         *  439 

might  be,  ripen  their  consultations  beforehand,  that  their 
vote  in  public  might  bear  as  the  voice  of  God ;  that,  in 
meetings  out  of  court,  the  Magistrates  should  not  discuss 
the  business  of  parties  in  their  presence,  nor  deliver  their 
opinions,  &c.  ;  that  trivial  things  should  be  ended  in 
towns  " ;  ^  that  certain  rules  of  order  should  be  observed 
in  public  meetings ;  that  the  Magistrates  should  cultivate 
a  frank,  friendly,  and  familiar  intercourse  with  each  other ; 
that  a  more  distinct  precedency  should  be  given  to  the 
Governor  in  the  conduct  of  the  public  business ;  that 
Assistants  should  refrain  from  embarrassing  each  other's 
proceedings  ;  that  the  Magistrates  should  "  grace  and 
strengthen  their  under  officers  in  their  places " ;  and 
finally,  that  "  all  contempts  against  the  Court,  or  any  of 
the  Magistrates,  should  be  speedily  noted  and  punished, 
and  that  Magistrates  should  appear  more  solemnly  in  pub- 
lic, with  attendance,  apparel,  and  open  notice  of  their 
entrance  into  the  Court."  ~ 

At  the  first  election  after  his  arrival,  Vane  was  chosen 
Governor,    with  Winthrop  for  his  Deputy.      It 

^  i.         ./  Vane  chosen 

is  likely  that  the  resentment  of  the  freemen  Governor. 
against  Cotton's  doctrine  of  a  vested  estate  in  the 
highest  offices  was  not  yet  exhausted.  It  may  have  been 
believed  that  Haynes  intended  to  leave  Massachusetts. 
And  the  remarkable  personal  qualities  of  Vane,  set  ofi^ 
by  his  eminent  social  position,  required  no  long  time  to 
make  themselves  felt.^     The  Assistants  now  chosen  were 

1  There  was  one  good  fruit,  at  least,  bad  been  here  less  than  two  montbs,]  at 
of  tbis  conference,  if  it  led  to  the  law  a  general  meeting  upon  public  notice,  it 

respecting  towns,  which  was  passed  at     is  agreed that  none  of  the  mem- 

the  next  General  Court,  six  weeks  after-  bers  of  this  congregation  or  inhabitants 

ward  (see  above,  p.  434).  amongst  us  shall  sue  one  another  at  the 

2  "Winthrop,  I.  177-179.  law  before  that  Mr.  Henry  Vane  and 

3  In  Boston,  indeed,  he  had  been  the  two  elders,  Mr.  Thomas  Oliver  and 
welcomed  with  expressions  of  a  confi-  Thomas  Leverett,  have  had  the  hearing 
dence  which,  considering  his  youth,  and  deciding  of  the  cause,  if  they  can." 
seems  almost  like  infatuation.      "  No-  (Town  Records  of  Boston.) 

vember  30,  1635,  [at  which  time  Vane 


44:0  HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

the  same  as  in  the  last  year,  except  that  Hough,  for  some 
reason  whicli  is  not  apparent,  was  left  out,  and  the  Gov- 
ernor and  Deputy-Governor  of  that  year  were  added  to 
the  list,  with  Endicott,  whose  term  of  penance  had  ex- 

1535.      pired,  and  Roger  Harlakenden,  a  young  man  of 

August.  gQod  family  and  fortune,  who  had  arrived  in  the 
preceding  autumn. 

The  accession  of  Vane  was  greeted  with  unusual  pomp. 
"  Because  he  was  son  and  heir  to  a  Privy  Counsellor  in 
England,  the  ships  congratulated  his  election  with  a  vol- 
ley of  great  shot."  The  enthusiasm  awakened  in  his  be- 
half he  had  the  good  sense  to  turn  to  account  for  the 
public  advantage.  "  The  next  week,  he  invited  all  the 
masters  (there  were  then  fifteen  great  ships)  to  dinner." 
And  he  profited  by  the  interview  to  make  them  agree  that 
vessels  bound  to  Boston  should  anchor  below  the  castle, 
till  their  friendly  character  should  be  ascertained ;  that 
the  Magistrates  should  have  the  first  offer  of  commodities 
which  they  brought ;  and  "  that  their  men  might  not  stay 
on  shore,  except  upon  necessary  business,  after  sunset."  ^ 

The  king's  mutilated  flag  flapped  forthwith  in  the  face 
of  the  son  of  the  king's  Privy  Counsellor  and  Secretary. 
A  seaman  "  spake  to  some  of  our  people  aboard  his 
The  royal  sliip,  that  becausc  we  had  not  the  king's  colors  at 
''^^"icnfi       0^11*  fort,,  we  were  all  traitors  and  rebels."     The 

May  31.  Magistrates  apprehended  and  committed  him. 
"  He  acknowledged  his  offence,  and  set  his  hand  to  a 
submission,  and  was  discharged.  Then  the  Governor  de- 
sired the  masters  that  they  w^ould  deal  freely,  and  tell  us 
if  they  did  take  any  offence,  and  what  they  required  of 
us."  They  replied  that,  as  they  should  be  questioned 
when  they  got  home,  they  should  like  to  see  the  national 
flag  displayed  at  the  castle.  And  now  a  singular  fact  ap- 
peared. In  an  English  colony,  six  years  old,  the  royal 
ensign  was  not  to  be  found.     "  It  was  answered,  that  we 

1  Wlnthrop,  I.  187. 


Chap.  XL]  MASSACHUSETTS.  441 

had  not  the  king's  colors."  The  shipmasters  offered  to 
furnish  them,  and  they  were  hoisted  accordingly  over  the 
fort,  but  not  till  after  solemn  consultation,  and,  as  far  as 
some  of  the  Magistrates  were  concerned,  with  no  other 
consent  than  connivance,  Winthrop,  who  was  evidently 
dissatisfied,  says  :  "  We  had  conferred  over  night  with  Mr. 
Cotton,  &c.,  about  the  point.  The  Governor  and  Mr. 
Dudley  and  Mr.  Cotton  were  of  opinion  that  they  might 
be  set  up  at  the  fort  upon  this  distinction,  that  it  was 
maintained  in  the  king's  name,"  and  so  "  that  his  own 
colors  might  be  spread  there."  "  Some  others,  being  not 
so  persuaded,  could  not  join  in  the  act,  yet  would  not 
oppose,  as  being  doubtful."  ^ 

In  plain  defiance  of  the  charter,  a  new  order  of  magis- 
tracy was  instituted  at  the  General  Court  which  elected 
Yane  to  be  Governor.     Winthrop  "  was  chosen  , 

*-  Institution 

to  be  one  of  the  Standing  Council  for  the  term  of  of  a  council 
his  life."  The  same  dignity  was  conferred  upon 
Dudley  at  the  same  time,  and  upon  Endicott  in  the  follow- 
ing year;  and  never  upon  any  other  person.  The  ap- 
pointments were  made  in  fulfilment  of  a  vote,  passed  at 
the  General  Court  two  months  before,  "  that  the  General 
Court  to  be  holden  in  May  next,  for  election  of  Magis- 
trates, and  so  from  time  to  time,  as  occasion  shall 

.  ^  .  March  3. 

require,  shall  elect  a  certain  number  of  magis- 
trates, for  term  of  their  lives,  as  a  standing  council,  not 
to  be  removed  but  upon  due  conviction  of  crime,  insuf- 
ficiency, or  for  some  other  weighty  cause,  the  Governor 
for  the  time  being  to  be  always  President  of  this  Council, 
and  to  have  such  further  power  out  of  Court  as  the  Gen- 
eral Court  shall  from  time  to  time  endue  them  withal."  ^ 
This  attempt  was  a  revival  of  Cotton's  doctrine  of  perpe- 
tuity in  ofln.ce,  as  well  as  probably  a  concession  to  the  pro- 
posal of  Lord  Say  and  Sele  to  introduce  an  aristocratical 

1  Winthrop,   I.    187-189.      Comp.        2  Mass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  167. 
Mass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  176,  178. 


442  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

element  into  the  government.-'      But  the  plan  v,vls   not 

pressed;  it  acquired  no  favor  with  the  people,  and  came 

to  nothing. 

At  the  same  General  Court  a  committee  was  raised  "  to 

make  a  draught  of  laws  agreeable  to  the  word  of  God, 

which  may  be  the  fundamentals  of  this  common- 
March  25.  •'    , 

Proposal  for  a  Wealth,  aud  to  present  the  same  to  the  next  Gen- 
code  of  laws.  .  '       1      r     ^ 
eral    Court.         llie   committee    consisted  oi    the 

Governor  and  Deputy-Governor,  the  Assistants  Dudley, 
Haynes,  and  Bellingham,  and  the  ministers  Cotton,  Peter, 
and  Shepard."  The  General  Court  of  the  preceding  year 
had  given  a  like  charge  to  Haynes,  Bellingham,  AYin- 
throp,  and  Dudley.^  But  it  was  several  years  before  this 
object,  diligently  pursued  by  the  freemen,  was  accom- 
plished. The  Magistrates  and  ministers,  who  did  not 
favor  it,  knew  how  to  interpose  embarrassments  and  de- 
lays. 

"  The  people thought  their  condition  very  unsafe, 

while  so  much  power  rested  in  the  discretion  of  jNIagis- 
tratcs."  At  first  view,  their  apprehensions  and  their  de- 
mand appear  unquestionably  just ;  yet  reasons  "  which 
caused  most  of  the  Magistrates  and  some  of  the  elders 
not  to  be  very  forward  in  this  matter,"  were  not  without 
weight.  The  practical  and  cautious  habit  of  thought  of 
the  more  influential  minds  led  them  to  the  opinion,  that 
a  code  of  statute  law,  which  must  be  framed,  would  not 
prove  so  fit  and  safe  as  a  system  of  Common  Law,  which 
could  only  grow;  they  reflected  on  the  "want  of  sufficient 
experience  of  the  nature  and  disposition  of  the  people, 

1  Cotton  wrote  to  Lord  Say  and  Selc,  to  choose  more,  till  they  see  what  fur- 
that  "the  General  Court  had  already  ther  better  choice  the  Lord  will  send 
condescended  unto  "  one  of  his  Propo-  over  to  them,  that  so  they  may  keep  an 
sals,  "  in  establishinji  a  Standinjr  Conn-  open  door  for  such  desirable  gentlemen 
oil,  who,  durinfr  their  lives,  should  assist  as  your  Lordship  mentioncth."  (.lohn 
the  Governor  in  manajring  th(!  chicfest  Cotton  to  Lord  Say  and  Sele,  in  Ilutch- 
aflTairs  of  this  little  state.  They  have  inson,  L,  App.  TIL) 
chosen  for  the  present  only  two,  Mr.  ^  ;^fass.  Col.  llec.,  L  174. 
■\yintlirop  and  Mr.  Dudley,  not  willing  3  Ibid.,  14  7. 


Chap.  XL]  MASSACHUSETTS.  443 

considered  with  the  condition  of  the  country  and  other 
circumstances,  which  nlade  them  conceive  that  such  laws 
would  be  fittest  for  us  which  should  arise  i)ro  re  natd,  upon 
occasions."  Their  patriotic  vigilance  discerned  another 
material  difficulty.  A  formal  code,  with  provisions  such 
as  were  needed  or  desired,  "would,"  said  Winthrop,  "pro- 
fessedly transgress  the  limits  of  our  charter,  which  pro- 
vides we  shall  make  no  laws  repugnant  to  the  laws  of 
England,  and  that  we  were  assured  we  must  do ;  but  to 
raise  up  laws  by  practice  and  custom  had  been  no  trans- 
gression ;  as,  in  our  church  discipline  and  in  matters  of 
marriage,  to  make  a  law  that  marriages  should  not  be  sol- 
emnized by  ministers,  is  repugnant  to  the  laws  of  Eng- 
land ;  but  to  bring  it  a  custom  by  practice  for  the  Magis- 
trates to  perform  it,  is  no  law  made  repugnant."^  The 
subject  will  repeatedly  recur  hereafter. 

A  General  Court  convened  by  Vane  towards  the  close 
of  his  term,  "  taking  into  consideration  the  great  dan- 
2jer  and  damap^e  that  mif^ht  accrue  to   the   state 

Dec.  13. 

by  all  the  freemen's  leaving  their  plantations  to 
come  to  the  place  of  elections,"  passed  an  order  making  it 
"  free  and  lawful  for  all  freemen  to  send  their  votes  for 
elections  by  proxy  the  next  General  Court  in  May,  and 
so  for  thereafter " ; "  an  approach  to  the  mode  of  local 
voting  in  use  at  the  present  day.  At  the  same  Court,  a 
military  organization  was  matured.  It  was  "or-  Mnitary or- 
dered, that  all  military  men  in  the  jurisdiction  g-'^n'^^''""- 
should  be  ranked  into  three  regiments,"  according  to  a 
division  which  subsequently  became  the  basis  of  counties. 
The  elder  Winthrop  was  provisionally  appointed  Colonel, 
and  Dudley  Lieutenant-Colonel,  of  the  troops  of  the 
southern  district ;  Haynes  and  Harlakeuden  received  the 
like  appointments  for  Charlestown  and  the  western  set- 
tlements ;  and  Endicott  and  Winthrop  the  younger  for 
Saugus,  Salem,  Ipswich,  and  Newbury.     After  this  first 

1  Winthrop,  I.  322,  323.  2  Mass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  188. 


444  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

organization,  the  regiments  were  respectively  to  elect  their 
field-officers ;  "  and  for  the  captains  and  lieutenants  to  the 
several  companies,  the  several  towns "  were  to  "  make 
choice  of  some  principal  man,  or  two  or  three,  in  each 
town,  and  present  them  to  the  Council,  who  should  ap- 
point one  of  them  to  the  said  office  in  each  company." 
The  officers  were  all  to  be  freemen ;  but,  in  the  nomina- 
tion of  company  officers,  privates  who  were  not  freemen 
might  vote.  The  Governor  for  the  time  being  was  always 
to  be  Commander-in-chief^ 

Simultaneously  with  the  foundation  of  Providence  by 
Roger  AVilliams,  a  more  important  movement  had  taken 
place  towards  the  region  further  to  the  west.  To  follow 
the  progress  of  this  transaction,  and  observe  its  connection 
with  its  important  incidents  in  Massachusetts,  it  is  neces- 
sary first  to  retrace  our  steps. 

The  establishment  of  a  factory  by  the  Plymouth  people 
on  Connecticut  River,  and  the  visits  to  it  of  John  Old- 
ham and  of  a  vessel  of  Governor  Winthrop,  have  been 
related  in  a  former  chapter."  Intelligence  which  from 
time  to  time  arrived  of  the  fertility  of  that  region  led 
manv  to  desire  to  transfer  themselves  to  it  from 

Scheme  of  an  •' 

emigration  to  tlic  Icss  productivo  soll  upou  which  they  had  at 

Connecticut.  •         -\  r  i  ^  '    M 

first  sat  down  m  Massachusetts;  and  especially 
the  project  was  entertained  by  the  inhabitants  of  Dorches- 
ter, Watertown,  Newtown,  and  Poxbury.  It  was  favored 
at  Poxbury  by  Pynchon,  one  of  the  Assistants,  and  at 
Dorchester  by  Ludlow,  the  principal  lay  citizen.  But  at 
the  head  of  the  enterprise,  in  the  shape  which  it  finally 
took,  were  Hooker  and  Stone,  ministers  of  Newtown,  and 
their  parishioner,  John  Haynes. 

It  has  been  mentioned  that  these  three  eminent  persons 
came  over  in  the  ship  which  also  brought  John  Cotton ; 
and  the  reader  is  acquainted  with  the  prominent  part  at 
once  taken  by  Ilaynes  in  the  aff'airs  of  the  Colony.     Sam- 

1  Mass.  Col.  lice,  I.  18G,  187.  2  See  above,  pp.  339,  309,  370. 


Chap.  XI.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  445 

uel  Stone,  educated,  like  so  many  others  of  our  founders, 
at  Emmanuel  College,  Cambridge,  had  been  a  samuei 
lecturer  in  Northamptonshire  before  his  flight  into  ^^™'' 
America.     Thomas  Hooker,  student  and  Fellow  Thomas 

Hooker. 

of  the  same  College,  had  acquired  a  high  reputa- 
tion in   the  same  employment  at  Chelmsford,  in  Essex. 
He  had  also  taught  a  school,  in  which  John  Eliot  was 
his  assistant.     From  the  threats  of  the  High-Commission 
Court  he  escaped  to  Rotterdam,  where  he  became  pastor 
to  the  congregation  served  by  Dr.  Ames  as  teacher.     The 
intention  of  some  of  his  Essex  friends  to  emigrate  having 
been  made  known  to  him,  he  returned  to  England,  and, 
managing  to  get  on  shipboard  in  disguise,  joined  them,  a 
year  after  the  arrival  of  their  most  numerous  com-      1^33. 
pany,  at  Newtown,  where  he  was  presently  estab-    ^''^'  ^^' 
lished  as  their  pastor,  Mr.  Stone  being  associated  with 
him  as  teacher. 

It  was  at  the  first  annual  General  Court  after  their 
arrival,  and  after  the  rejection  of  the  proposal  from  Ply- 
mouth to  plant  upon  Connecticut  E-iver,^  that  the  New- 
town people  presented  their  application  for  leave  1034. 
"  to  look  out  either  for  enlargement  or  removal."  ^  ^^^^  ^'^• 
If  their  plan  was  already  matured,  it  was  not  understood 
by  the  Court,  and  the  request,  preferred  in  such  general 
terms,  was   readily  consented  to.^      At  the  next 

'  •'  ,  Sept.  4. 

meeting,  the  purpose  "to  remove  to  Connecticut" 
was  avowed.      "  This  matter  was  debated  divers  days,  and 
many  reasons  alleged  pro  and  con.     The  principal  reasons 
for  their  removal  were,  —  1.  Their  want  of  ac-   ,„    ^ 

'  Alleged  mo- 

commodation  for  their  cattle,  so  as  they  were  not  tivesfor 

......  IT  emigration. 

able  to  mamtam  their  mmisters,  nor  could  re- 
ceive any  more  of  their  friends  to  help  them ;  and  here 
it  was  alleged  by  Mr.  Hooker,  as  a  fundamental  error, 
that  towns  were  set  so  near  each  to  other.     2.  The  fruit- 
fulness  and  commodiousness  of  Connecticut,  and  the  dan- 

1  See  above,  p.  340.  2  Winthrop,  I.  132,  3  Mass.  Col.  Eec,  1. 119. 

vor,.  I.  38 


446  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

gcr  of  having  it  possessed  by  others,  Dutch  or  English. 
3.  The  strong  bent  of  their  spirits  to  remove  thither."  ' 

The  first  of  these  reasons  does  not  seem  suitable  to  have 
much  influence  on  those  who,  though  just  joined  by  a  recent 
emigration  of  some  hundreds,  had  behind  and  beside  them 
the  whole  territory  of  Massachusetts,  supporting  at  this  day 
more  than  a  million  of  inhabitants.  The  second  divides  it- 
self into  two  branches,  the  latter  of  which  is  a  consideration 
of  public  advantage,  apparently  calculated  not  so  much 
to  prompt  the  design  entertained,  as  to  promote  its  favora- 
ble reception  by  the  authorities.  The  former  branch,  relat- 
ing to  "  the  fruitfulness  and  commodiousness  of  Connecti- 
cut," may  well  have  entered  as  a  large  element  into  that 
"  strong  bent  of  their  spirits  to  remove  thither,"  which  was 
specified  as  the  third  reason.  Yet  another  reason  for  this 
"strong  bent"  has  been  found  by  some  writers  in  a  sup- 
posed jealousy  of  Mr.  Winthrop  on  the  part  of  Mr. 
Haynes,  and  of  Mr.  Cotton  on  the  part  of  Mr.  Hooker, 
impelling  the  two  chief  pioneers  of  Connecticut  to  seek 
a  sphere  where  their  influence  would  cease  to  be  con- 
trolled, and  their  consequence  eclipsed,  by  rivals  earlier 
possessed  of  the  public  confidence.^  But  the  hypothesis 
is  not  sustained  either  by  definite  facts,  or  by  anything  in 
the  character  of  those  eminently  imselfish  persons.  If 
motives  of  this  description  had  weight  with  any  of  the 
projectors,  they  are  more  likely  to  have  influenced  Ludlow 
of  Dorchester,  whose  ambitious  and  uneasy  temper^  was 
sufficiently  evinced  both  before  and  after  his  departure. 
In  respect  to  the  Watertown  people,  it  would  be  no  mat- 
ter of  surprise,  if,  after  the  suppression,  by  the  calm  pru- 
dence of  Winthrop,  of  Avhat  may  be  called  a  mutiny 
among  them,'*  some  fire  had  still  slumbered  among  the 

1  "Winthrop,  I.  110.  (Winthrop,   I.    141.)      But   the   next 

2  Iliildj.inl,  Chap.  XLT.  yoar,  when  he  had  been  left  out  of  the 

3  Ludlow  was  against  the  measure  in  magistracy,  he  altered  his  mind. 
1634,  when  he  was  Deputy-Governor.  ^  ggc  above,  p.  353. 


Chap.  XL]  MASSACHUSETTS.  447 

ashes.  As  the  Connecticut  emigrants  did  not  adopt  in 
their  own  settlement  that  radical  feature  of  the  social  sys- 
tem of  Massachusetts  which  founded  the  ciyil  franchise  on 
church-membership,  we  may  not  unnaturally  suppose  that 
dissatisfaction  with  it.  and  apprehension  of  the  results  of 
that  union  between  church  and  state  which  had  already 
been  partially  developed  out  of  it,  may  have  been  among 
theij  motives  for  seeking  a  separate  home.  And  it  may 
have  been.  that,  in  the  existing  relations  between  Massa- 
chusetts and  the  mother  country.  Haynes  and  Hooker  and 
their  associates  were  disposed  to  seek  the  security  of  a 
residence  more  remote ;  —  a  motive  which  is  known  to 
have  had  a  part  in  prompting  the  next  emigration  towards 
the  west. 

"  Against  these  it  was  said.  —  1.  That,  in  point  of  con- 
science, they  ought  not  to  depart  from  us,  being  knit  to 
us  in  one  body,  and  bound  by  oath  to  seek  the  Ke*«s 
welfare  of  this  commonwealth.  "2.  That,  in  point  »?»™^*- 
of  state  and  civil  policy,  we  ought  not  to  give  them  leave 
to  depart.  —  (1.)  Being  we  were  now  weak,  and  in  danger 
to  be  assailed ;  (2.)  The  departure  of  Mr.  Hooker  would 
not  only  draw  many  from  us,  but  also  divert  other  friends 
who  would  come  to  us ;  (3.)  "We  should  expose  them  to 
evident  peril,  both  from  the  Dutch  (who  made  claim,  to  the 
same  river  and  had  already  built  a  fort  there)  and  fix)m 
the  Indians,  and  also  from  our  own  state  at  home,  who 
would  not  endure  they  should  sit  down  without  a  patent 
in  any  place  which  our  king  lays  claim  to.  3.  They 
might  be  accommodated  at  home  by  some  enlargement 
which  other  towns  offered.  4.  They  might  remove  to 
Merrimack,  or  any  other  place  within  our  patent  5.  The 
removing  of  a  candlestick^  is  a  great  judgment" 

TMien  the  matter  came  to  a  vote,  the  two  branches  of 
the  legislature,  if  we  are  already  so  to  call  them,  dis- 
agreed.    Fifteen  of  the  twenty-five  Deputies  were  in  favor 

1  This  figure  is  borroired  fitim  Berelation  i.  11  - 13,  20,  etc. 


448  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

of  granting  the  permission  desired,  while  of  the  Magis- 
trates all  but  the  Governor  and  two  Assistants  dissented. 
The  Magistrates  were  the  responsible  pilots  of  the  young 
commonwealth  through  the  difficulties  of  its  relation  to 
the  mother  country,  and  to  them  the  consideration  of  the 
danger  to  be  apprehended  from  the  "  state  at  home,  which 
would  not  endure  that  they  should  sit  down  without  a 
patent  in  any  place  which  the  king  laid  claim  to,"  sug- 
gested yet  other  thoughts.  It  could  scarcely  occur  to 
their  minds,  without  exciting  an  alarm,  lest  that  attention 
to  American  colonies  and  charters,  which  it  was  so  much 
their  interest  to  avoid,  should  be  revived  at  court  by  the 
proposed  movement,  and  lest  the  investigation  should  be 
favored  even  by  those  patentees  of  Connecticut  whose 
rights  would  be  encroached  upon,  and  who  had  hitherto 
been  so  much  their  friends. 

The  important  question  had  thus  arisen  whether  a  ma- 
jority of  the  Magistrates  possessed  an  effectual  negative 
auestion  re-  voico  lu  tlic  govemmcnt.  "  Upon  this  grew  a 
spcciinga      prreat  difference."     All  other  methods  failing;  to 

veto  power       o  o 

ofthemagis-  composc  it,  "  tho  whole  Court  agreed  to  keep  a 
day  of  humiliation  to  seek  the  Lord,  which  ac- 
cordingly was  done  in  all  the  congregations."  The  Gen- 
eral Court  re-assembled  after  a  fortnight's  adjournment, 
and  listened  to  a  sermon  from  Mr.  Cotton,  "  upon  Mr. 
Hooker's  instant  excuse  of  his  unfitness  for  that  occasion." 
From  the  text,  "  Yet  now  be  strong,  O  Zerubbabel,  saith 
the  Lord,  and  be  strong,  O  Joshua  the  son  of  Josedeck, 
the  high-priest,  and  be  strong,  all  ye  people  of  the  land, 
saith  the  Lord,  and  work,  for  I  am  with  you,  saith  the 
Lord  of  hosts,"  ^  Cotton  "  laid  down  the  nature  or  strength 
(as  he  termed  it)  of  the  magistracy,  ministry,  and  people ; 
namely,  the  strength  of  the  magistracy  to  be  their  author- 
ity ;  of  the  people,  their  liberty  ;  and  of  the  ministry,  their 
purity ;  and  showed  how  all  of  these  had  a  negative  voice, 

1  Haggal  iL  4. 


Chap.  XI]  MASSACHUSETTS.  449 

&c.,  and  that  yet  the  ultimate  resolution,  &c.  ought  to  be 
in  the  whole  body  of  the  people,  &c."  His  address,  if  it  did 
not  close  the  question  against  future  agitation,  answered 
the  present  purpose.  "Although  all  were  not  satisfied 
about  the  negative  voice  to  be  left  to  the  Magistrates,  yet 
no  man  moved  aught  about  it,  and  the  congregation  of 
Newtown  came  and  accepted  of  such  enlargement  as  had 
formerly  been  offered  them  by  Boston  and  Watertown, 
and  so  the  fear  of  their  removal  to  Connecticut  was  re- 
moved." ^ 

When,  at  the  next  annual  General  Court,  Haynes  was 
made  Governor  of  Massachusetts,  it  was  perhaps  partly 
with  the  intent  of  detaching  him  from  the  en-  1(535, 
terprise.  But  the  Magistrates  appear  now  to  ^^^^^' 
have  determined  to  refrain  from  harshly  pressing  their 
objections.  Perhaps  because  they  had  become  satisfied 
that  further  opposition  would  be  fruitless,^  or  that  it  was 
not  the  time  to  assert  a  claim  which  had  been  so  vigor- 
ously contested,  or  that  it  was  not  worth  the  contention 
it  would  revive,^  they  consented  to  a  vote  couched  in  these 
ambiguous  terms  :  "  There  is  liberty  granted  to  the  inhab- 
itants of  Watertown  to  remove  themselves  to  any  place 
they  shall  think  meet  to  make  choice  of,  provided  they 
continue  still  under  this  government."  ^     In  the  course  of 

1  Wintlarop,  I.  140  -  142.  and  obtained  liberty  to  remove,"  &c. 

2  There  is  a  tradition  (see  Trumbull,  His  accuracy  is  in  general  unimpeach- 
Ilistory  of  Connecticut,  I.  59)  that  some  able  ;  but  I  do  not  find  that  he  is  right 
stragglers  from  Watertown  had  already  in  the  present  instance.  As  I  under- 
wintered  at  the  spot  where  is  now  stand  it,  there  was  no  further  action  of 
Wethersfield.  the  General  Court  on  the  subject  of  the 

3  "  Divers  jealousies  that  had  been  removal  of  the  Newtown  church  till  the 
between  the  Magistrates  and  Deputies  grant,  in  March,  1636,  of  the  "Com- 
were  now  cleared,  with  full  satisfaction  mission  to  Several  Pei-sons  to  govern 
to  all  parties."     (Winthrop,  I.  160.)  the  People  at  Connecticut,"  the  pream- 

4  Mass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  146.  A  simi-  ble  to  which  reads  thus:  ""Whereas, upon 
lar  vote  was  passed  as  to  Roxbury.  some  reasons  and  grounds,  there  are  to 
(Ibid.)  Trumbull  says  (I.  59)  :  "  The  remove  from  this  our  commonwealth 
next  May,  the  Newtown  people,  deter-  and  body  of  the  Mattachusetts  in  Amer- 
mining  to  settle  at  Connecticut,  renewed  ica,  divers  of  our  loving  friends,  neigh- 
their  application  to  the  General  Court,  bors,  freemen,  and  members  of  New- 

38* 


450  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

the  summer,  a  party  from  Dorchester  found  their  way  to 
the  neio:hborhood  of  the  spot  where  the  Plymouth 

Emigration  '-'  i.  ^ 

to  Connect-    factory  had  been  planted/   and  a  few  explorers 
from   Watertown    established    themselves   where 
Wethersfield  at  length  grew  up."     Probably  these  expe- 
ditions were  preparatory  to  a  more  important  one  which 
took  place  in  the  autumn,  when  a  party  of  sixty  persons, 
including  women  and  children,  driving  cattle  before  them, 
set  off  for  the  infant  settlements.^    The  unexpect- 
ed  length  of  their  difficult  journey  abridged  their 
time  for  making  preparations  for  the  winter,  which  came 
on  unusually  soon,  and  proved  to  be  of  distressing  sever- 
ity.    In  six  weeks  from  the  time  of  their  depart- 

Nov.  2G.  -'  .  -■■ 

ure,  twelve  of  their  number  had  struggled  back  to 
Eoston.  They  reported  that  they  had  left  the  river  already 
frozen  over,  excluding  all  supplies  by  water  carriage,  and 
that  "  they  had  been  ten  days  upon  their  journey,  and 
had  lost  one  of  their  company,  drowned  in  the  ice  by  the 
way,  and  had  been  all  starved,  but  that,  by  God's  provi- 
dence, they  lighted  upon  an  Indian  wigwam."  "* 

When  John  Winthrop  the  younger  came  to  New  Eng- 
land the  second  time,  he  bore  a  commission  from  Lord 

Say  and  Sele,  Lord  Brooke,  and  others  their  asso- 

Oct.  6.        .  *'  .         ^ 

ciates,  patentees  of  Connecticut.""  It  constituted 
him  Governor  of  that  territory  for  a  year,  with  instruc- 
tions to  build  a  fort  at  the  river's  mouth,  for  which  pur- 
town,  Dorcliestcr,  Watertown,  and  other  "Warwick,  President  of  the  Council  for 
places,  who  are  resolved  to  transplant  New  England.  Lord  Warwick's  as- 
themselves  and  their  estates  unto  the  signmcnt  to  the  new  proprietors,  with  a 
river  of  Connecticut,  there  to  reside  description  of  the  boundaries,  &c.,  under 
and  inhabit,  and  to  that  end  divers  are  the  date  of  March  19,  1632,  may  be 
there  already,  and  divers  otiiers  shortly  found  in  Hazard  (I.«  318),  as  well 
to  go,"  &c.    (Mass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  170.)      as  in  other  places.  —  Winthrop's  com- 

1  See  above,  p.  340.  mission,  sigue<l  by  Sir  Arthur  Hazel- 

2  Trumbull,  I.  59.  rigg,  George  Fenwick,  who  subsequent- 

3  Winthrop,  I.  171.  ly  came  over,  and  three  others,  as  a 
*  Winthro|)'s  Journal,  I.  1 73.  committee  of  the  patentees,  is  in  the 
5  They  were  proprietors  of  that  ter-     Appendix  (No   IT.)  to  the  first  volume 

ritory  as  assigns  of  Robert  Rich,  Earl  of    of  Trumbull's  History. 


Dy,iii-,.  fJvm.tfuO'itnnaJjT'ictun  6y  J.RJ>rui. 


riRST  aovEBJsroit  of  massacbjisjetts  . 


Chap.  XI.]  CONNECTICUT.  451 

pose  he  came  provided  with  men  and  ammunition,  and  with 
two  thousand  pounds  in  money.  He  was  further  directed 
to  employ  a  party  of  fifty  to  erect  the  fort,  and  to  Foundation 
put  up  houses,  "  first  for  their  own  present  ac-  "^  ^aybrook. 
commodations,  and  then  such  houses  as  may  receive  men 
of  quality,"  the  latter  to  be  within  the  circuit  of  the  fort ; 
and  he  Avas  to  take  care  that  all  settlers  for  the  present 
should  "  plant  themselves  either  at  the  harbor,  or  near  the 
mouth  of  the  river,"  for  the  purpose  of  more  effective  mu- 
tual defence.      He  forthwith  despatched  a  partv 

1-1  •  r.  Nov.  3. 

01  twenty  men,  who,  Avith  two  pieces  of  cannon 
which  they  had  mounted,  drove  off  a  vessel  sent  from 
New  Netherland  to  assert  the  Dutch  claim  to  the  posses- 
sion of  the  river.  Something  was  done  towards  the  main- 
tenance of  the  English  right  when  a  small  work  was  first 
erected  and  then  commanded  by  Lion  Gardiner,  an  engi- 
neer whom  Winthrop  had  brought  over  for  the  purpose.^ 

Vane  and  Peter  were  associated  with  Winthrop,  by  the 
patentees  of  Connecticut,  in  the  agency  for  the  manage- 
ment of  their  estate.  The  three  made  proclamation  of 
the  rights  of  their  principals,  and  required  a  recognition 
of  them  on  the  part  of  the  emigrants  to  that  region.-  The 
matter  was  adjusted  by  an  agreement  of  the  emigrants, 
either  to  withdraAV  entirely  on  being  remunerated  for  their 
expenses,  or  to  give  up  such  portion  of  the  ground  they 

1  Winthrop,  I.  1 70,  1 73,  1 75  ;  Trum-  Winthrop  the  younger,  though  it  is 
bull,  1.497.  —  In  his  "  Relation  of  the  barely  possible  that  the  Governor  is 
Pequot  Warres"  (Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  indicated.  Winthrop  the  younger  is 
XXIII.  13(5),  Gardiner  qvialifies  him-  spoken  of  in  the  body  of  the  paper ;  but 
self  as  "  Engineer  and  Master  of  what  seems  to  me  more  than  counter- 
Works  of  Fortification  in  the  Leaguers  vailing  evidence  that  he,  not  his  father, 
of  the  Prince  of  Orange  in  the  Low  was  the  signer,  is  the  language  in  which 
Countries."  the  Connecticut  people  are  challenged  to 

2  The  document  is  in  the  Appendix  declare  "  under  what  right  and  pretence 
to  Savage's  Winthrop,  I.  477.  "The  they  have  lately  taken  up  their  planta- 
agents  of  the  patentees,"  mentioned  in  tions";  a  challenge  which  Winthrop  the 
it,  I  understand  to  be  the  subscribers,  elder,  after  his  agency  in  the  transac- 
Vane,  Winthrop,  and  Peter ;  and  the  tion,  could  scarcely  have  made.  Comp. 
second  subscriber  I  understand  to  be  Winthrop,  I.  1 70. 


452  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

had  occupied  as  should  be  satisfactory  to  the  patentees. 
But  further  reflection  must  have  shown  that  their  presence 
was  no  disadvantage,  but  a  benefit ;  and  they  were  exposed 
to  no  further  molestation  from  the  proprietors.  The  dispute 
with  Plymouth  Colony,  arising  out  of  the  occupation,  by 
the  emigrants  from  Dorchester,  of  lands  Avhich  the  former 
had  purchased  of  the  Indians  and  defended  against  the 
Dutch,^  lasted  longer;  but  Mas  at  length  amicably  com- 
posed, on  the  payment,  by  the  Dorchester  people,  of  fifty 
pounds,  with  a  surrender  of  forty  acres  of  intervale,  and 
a  large  tract  of  upland.^  The  pain  occasioned  by  the  re- 
cent quarrel  at  the  eastward  had  its  influence  in  peaceably 
determining  this  dispute.  "  To  make  any  forcible  resist- 
ance was  far  from  their  thoughts ;  they  had  had  enough 
of  that  about  Kennebec."  ^ 

Those  of  the  adventurers  who  persevered  in  attempting 
Sufferings  to  wiutcr  ou  Conuecticut  E-iver  underwent  ex- 
settiersof  trcmc  hardship.  The  vessels  in  which  they  had 
Connecticut,  j^jpj^  grcat  part  of  their  household  supplies  and 
furniture  were  detained  by  the  freezing  over  of  the  river. 
The  ground  Avas  covered  deep  with  snow,  and  the  cattle 
suffered  for  want  of  shelter  and  provender.  Impelled  by 
the  fear  of  famine,  seventy  persons  struggled 
down  to  the  river's  mouth,  in  fruitless  search 
of  the  expected  ships.  They  fell  in  with  another  vessel, 
which  took  them  back  to  Boston.  Acorns,  with  some 
malt  and  grain,  added  to  the  precarious  products  of  the 
chase,  furnished  scanty  means  of  subsistence  to  those  who 
stayed  behind.  The  loss  of  the  Dorchester  settlement 
alone,  in  cattle  that  died,  was  estimated  at  two  thousand 
pounds  sterling."* 

'  Bradford  felt  very  sore  about  this  to   invade.      Winslow    conducted    tlic 

transaction.    (History,  338-342.)  The  treaty.     (Winthrop,  I.  181.) 
reason,  or  pretence,  of  the  persistence         2  Trumbull,  I.   C6,  on  the  authority 

of  the    Dorchester   people    was,    that  of  nianuscrij)ts  of  Governor  Wolcott 

they  were,  or  mifrht  be,  within  the  lim-  Comp.  Bradford,  342. 
its  of  the  Massachusetts  patent,  which         3  Bradford,  341.     See  above,  p.  338. 
those  of  Plymouth  had  had  no  right         *  Winthrop,  I.  175,  184. 


Chap.  XI.]  CONNECTICUT.  453 

At  length  came  the  movement  which  gave  permanent 
vitality  to  Connecticut.  Among  the  numerous  colonists 
who  had  recently  arrived  was  a  company  attached  ic35. 
to  Thomas  Shepard/  formerly  of  Emmanuel  *^''^-^- 
College,  and  more  recently  a  lecturer  at  Earl's  Cone,  in 
Essex.^  Shepard  and  his  friends  arranged  with  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Newtown  church  for  the  purchase  of  their 
houses  and  other  immovable  property.  The  plan  of  re- 
moval being  thus  facilitated,  Hooker  and  Stone,  with 
the  members  of  their  congregation,  a  hundred  in  num- 
ber, of  both  sexes  and  all  aijes,  took  advantag^e 


o 


1636. 


of  the  pleasantest  of  the  New  England  months  June 
to  make  their  emigration.  They  directed  their  c.ni'gmion 
march  by  the  compass,  aided  by  such  local  in-  |°„^°""^*'*" 
formation  as  they  had  derived  from  previous  ex- 
plorers. Their  herd  of  a  hundred  and  sixty  cattle,  which 
grazed  as  they  journeyed,  supplied  them  with  milk. 
They  hewed  their  difficult  way  through  thickets,  and 
their  simple  engineering  bridged  with  felled  trees  the 
streams  wliich  could  not  be  forded.  Tents  and  wagons 
protected  them  from  the  rain,  and  sheltered  their  sleep. 
Early  berries,  which  grew  along  the  way,  furnished  an 
agreeable  variety  in  their  diet ;  and  the  fragrance  of  sum- 
mer flowers,  and  the  songs  of  innumerable  birds,  beguiled 
the  weariness  of  their  pilgrimage.  It  occupied  a  fortnight, 
though  the  distance  was  scarcely  a  hundred  miles.  Mrs. 
Hooker,  by  reason  of  illness,  was  conveyed  in  a  horse  litter. 
At  a  spot,  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Connecticut,  just 
north  of  the  Dutch  stockade,^  the  caravan  reached  its 
journey's  end.  The  little  settlements  above  and  below 
were  enlarged  in  the  course  of  the  summer  by  the  emi- 
gration of  the  churches  of  Dorchester  and  Watertown. 

1  In    the    year    1G35,    twenty    ves-  ~  Shepard,  Memoir  of  his  own  Life, 

sels  brouglit  three  thousand  colonists  to  in  Young's  Chronicles  of  Massachusetts, 

^lassachusetts,   including    eleven   miu-  p.  514. 

isters.  ^  See  above,  p.  340. 


45 -i  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

The  former  ^yas  accompanied  by  Mr.  AYarham, 
February,  ^j^.  Mavcrlck  having  lately  died.  The  latter 
engaged  a  new  pastor,  Mr.  Henry  Smith,  instead  of  Mr. 
Phillips,  who,  from  dissatisfaction  on  his  own  part  or  on 
theirs,  remained  behind.  To  the  spots  selected  for  their 
habitation  the  emigrants  gave,  for  the  present,  the  names 
of  the  Massachusetts  towns  which  resj)ectively  they  had 
left.  Pynchon  and  seven  other  persons  from  E,oxbury 
had  pitched  upon  a  beautiful  site  higher  up  the  river, 
afterwards  called  Springfield.-^  The  political  constitution 
of  the  four  plantations  was  the  singular  one  of  a  "  Com- 
le^^.  mission  granted  "  by  the  General  Court  of  Mas- 
warch.  sachusetts  to  Ludlow,  Pynchon,  and  six  others, 
"  to  govern  the  people  of  Connecticut  for  the  space  of  a 
year  now  next  coming." "  The  Massachusetts  Magistrates 
knew  that  at  least  the  lower  towns  on  the  Connecticut 
were  beyond  their  border.  But  their  course  seemed  to 
them  to  be  justified  by  "  a  necessity  that  some  present 
government  might  be  observed " ;  and  something  of  the 
English  doctrine  of  an  indefeasible  allegiance  adhering 
to  their  friends  in  their  new  abode  may  have  been  floating 
in  their  minds. 

Local  business  had  been  transacted  at  town  meetings^ 
from  the  beginning  of  the  plantations.     The  general  ad- 
ministration for  the  first  year  continued  entirely 

Governniont  -'  ' 

for  the  lir.t    in  tlic  liauds  of  the  Commissioners.    It  was  direct- 
ed, for  the  most  part,  to  the  establishment  of  po- 
lice and  military  regulations,  the  collection  of  a  revenue 
(for  which  purpose  a  Treasurer  was  chosen),  and  arrange- 


1  "They  entered  into  a  covenant  "Jolin  Wintlirop,  Jr.,  Esq.,  Governor, 
•with  each  other,  [1G.3C,]  May  11."  The  appohiteil  by  certain  noble  pcrsonajres 
Reverend  George  !Moxon,  their  first  and  men  of  qiiahty  interested  in  the 
minister,  was  with  them  as  early  as  tiic  said  river,  which  are  yet  in  England." 
following  year.      (Brock,  Century  Scr-  (]\Iass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  170.) 

mon  at  Springfield,  15,  IC.)  3  "One,   the   earliest,  bearing  date 

2  The  preamble,  however,  declares  1G.35."  (Hartford  iu  the  Olden  Time, 
that   this    was   done   in   concert    with  50.) 


Chap.  XL]  CONNECTICUT.  455 

meiits  for  the  settlement  of  estates  and  for  the  procuring 
of  ^Drovisions.  The  trespasses  of  swine  made  constant 
trouble  for  the  founders  of  Connecticut,  as  well  as  for  the 
legislators  of  the  community  they  had  left.  Before  the 
year  expired,  new  names  were  given  to  the  three  ics?. 
lower  towns.  Newtown  was  called  Hartford,  ^"''''•^^• 
after  the  English  birthplace  of  Mr.  Stone;  Watertown 
took  the  name  of  Wethersfield,  and  Dorchester  that  of 
Windsor.! 

The  government  of  the  Connecticut  towns  by  Com- 
missioners of  Massachusetts  had  been  but  a  provisional 
arrangement,  and  in  practice  was  found  to  be  inconven- 
ient. The  sense  of  allegiance,  such  as  it  was,  had  been 
weakened  by  the  short  time  of  absence ;  and  there  ap- 
peared no  good  reason  why  one  primitive  settlement 
should  owe  its  laws  to  another,  from  which  it  was  sepa- 
rated by  the  distance  of  a  fortnight's  journey  through  the 
woods.  Accordingly,  the  Massachusetts  commission  w^as 
not  renewed ;  and,  in  the  second  month  after  the  expira- 
tion of  the  year  to  which  it  was  limited,  a  Gen- 

,  .  May  1. 

eral  Court  was  held  at  Hartford.  In  it  the  aggre- 
gate community  was  represented  by  six  persons,  five  of 
whom  had  been  Commissioners,  while  nine  others  ap- 
peared as  "  committees  "  from  the  several  towns.^  Almost 
at  the  same  time,  the  new  Colony  received  the  welcome 
accession  of  John  Haynes.^ 

The  population  of  the  three  lower  towns  on  the  Con- 
necticut is  estimated  to  have  been  now  about  eight  hun- 
dred, including  two  hundred  and  fifty  adult  men.  There 
were  besides  twenty  of  the  younger  Winthrop's  men,  under 


1  Connecticut  Colony  Records,  7.  March  7  (INIass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  193),  thus 

2  Ibid.,  9.  performinn;   the  last   public  service  to 

3  "  Third  month  [May],  2.  Mr.  which  his  official  term  as  Assistant  ex- 
Haynes,  one  of  ourMagistrates,  removed  tended.  "jVIr.  Haynes  is  now  come  to 
with  his  family  to  Connecticut."  ('Win-  Hartford."  (Letter  of  Ludlow  to  Pyn- 
throp,  L  2G0.)  Haynes  was  in  his  place  c'hon,  May  17,  in  Mass.  Hist.  Coll., 
at  a  Court  of  Assistants  of  Massachusetts,  XVUI.  235.) 


456  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

Gardiner,  in  the  fort  at  the  river's  mouth. ^  The  colonists 
early  had  cause  for  extreme  uneasiness,  and  they  had  not 
been  a  year  in  their  new  home,  before  they  waged  a  san- 
guinary war  for  their  existence. 

It  has  been  mentioned  that  the  Pequots,  the  most  for- 
midable tribe  of  New  England,  occupied  the  country  be- 
warwith  tween  the  Pawcatuck  River,  now  the  western 
the  Pequots.  boundary  of  Rhode  Island,  and  the  river  then 
bearing  their  name,  now  called  the  Thames.  Their  west- 
ern border  was  some  thirty  miles  distant,  in  a  straight 
line,  from  the  nearest  of  the  recent  English  settlements. 
Sassacus  was  their  chief,  and  twenty-six  subordinate  sa- 
chems acknowledged  his  sway.  It  was  the  encroachments 
of  these  people  which  had  led  the  neighboring  tribes  to 
send  an  embassy  to  invite  an  English  settlement  for  their 
protection."  The  Narragansetts,  whose  hunting-grounds 
lay  to  the  eastward  of  theirs,  and  who  had  hitherto  been 
able,  with  difficulty,  to  escape  subjection  to  them,  re- 
garded the  Pequot  chief  with  a  superstitious  awe.  The 
!Mohegans,  who  had  been  tributary  to  the  Pequots,  were 
now  irritated  against  them,  and  ready  for  rebellion. 

Some  three  years  before,  two  traders,  named  Stone  and 
Norton,  having  sailed  from  New  England  for  Virginia, 
with  a  crew  of  six  other  persons,  had  steered 
their  vessel  up  the  Connecticut  River  for  traffic 
Norton.  ^^  ^^Q  Dutch  trading-house.  Stone  admitted 
twelve  of  the  natives  on  board  his  vessel,  and  engaged 
others  to  pilot  two  of  his  men  higher  up  the  stream  in  a 
boat.  The  guides,  at  night,  murdered  these  men,  and  the 
Indians  on  board  the  vessel  rose  upon  her  company  while 
most  of  them  were  asleep,  and  put  them  also  to  death. 
Intelligence  of  the  transaction  came  by  the  way  of  Ply- 
mouth to  Boston,  where  the  Magistrates  "  agreed  to 
write  to  the  Governor  of  Virginia,  because  Stone  was  one 
of  that  Colony,  to  move  him  to  revenge  it,  and  upon  his 

1  Mason,  History  of  tbe  Pequot  War,  ix.  2  Qqq  above,  pp.  24,  328. 


1C33. 
Murder  of 
Stono  and 


Chap.  XI]  CONNECTICUT.  457 

answer,  to  take  further  counsel."     The  murderers  belonged 
to  a  tribe  subject  to  Sassacus.^ 

The  business  slept  for  several  months,  when  a  messen- 
ger came  to  Boston  from  the  Pequot  chief,  with  friend- 
ly professions  and  overtures.  By  a  number  of  1034. 
sticks,  brought  in  two  bundles,  he  signified  the  ^'=''''^"- 
number  of  beaver  and  otter  skins  which  he  would  give 
as  the  price  of  a  treaty.  He  was  told  that  his  master 
ought  to  be  represented  by  "persons  of  greater  quality"-; 
and,  a  fortnight  after,  two  such  messengers  appeared. 
When  questioned  about  the  death  of  Stone's  people,  they 
protested  that  the  affair  was  in  part  accidental,  and  in 
part  a  revenge  for  ill-treatment  from  Stone ;  the  latter 
branch  of  which  allegation  was  thought  not  unlikely  to  be 
true,  as  Stone  had  conducted  himself  ill  in  Massachusetts, 
and  had  gone  away  under  a  sentence  of  banishment,  with 
the  threat  of  being  put  to  death  if  he  should  return.^ 
The  envoys  agreed,  however,  to  surrender  the  only  two 
of  the  murderers  that  survived,  the  rest,  as  they  pretend- 
ed, having  been  all  killed  since,  some  by  the  Dutch,  others 
by  the  small-pox ;  and  they  engaged  to  pay  smart-money 
in  the  form  of  wampum  and  furs,  and  to  cede  a  further 
space  for  settlement.  The  reason  for  this  submissiveness 
afterwards  appeared  to  be,  that  the  Pequots  were  just  then 
in  trouble  and  apprehension  on  account  both  of  the  Nar- 
ragansetts  and  the  Dutch.^  The  treaty  was  concluded, 
but  the  savages  broke  their  word  as  to  every  part  of  it; 
and  during  the  following  winter  their  suspicious  conduct 
kept  the  little  garrison  at  the  mouth  of  the  Connecticut 
in  constant  alarm. 

Some  further  negotiation  followed,  which  came  to  noth- 
ing.    The  murder  of  John  Oldham,  of  Watertown,  ex- 
cited fresh  alarm.     He  had  early  set  on  foot  a  Murder  of 
commerce  with  the  Rhode  Island  and  Connect-  °i'"i*'"- 

1  Winthrop,  I.   123.     Mason,  Brief    Bradford,  323;    Brodhead,  History  of 
History  of  the  Pequot  War,  ix.  New  York,  237. 

2  Winthrop,   I.    104,    111.      Comp.         3  Winthrop,  I.  148. 
VOL.  I.  39 


458  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

icut  Indians,  and  sailed  on  a  trip  of  this  kind  in  the  sum- 
mer of  the  English  emigrations  to  that  quarter.  A  Mas- 
1C3G.  sachusetts  fisherman,  John  Gallup,  of  Boston,  in 
July  20.  r^  |jQ^{.  -yyith  another  man  and  two  boys,  was 
driven  soon  after,  by  a  head  wind,  out  of  his  course,  which 
was  from  Connecticut  to  Long  Island.  In  the  neighbor- 
hood of  Block  Island,  his  attention  was  attracted  by  the 
awkward  management  of  a  little  vessel,  which  he  recog- 
nized as  belonging  to  Oldham,  of  whom  he  had  heard  as 
being  on  the  coast  with  only  two  white  boys  and  two 
Indians.  Approaching,  he  saw  a  canoe  put  off  from  her, 
and  her  deck  covered  with  natives.  The  chances  in  a 
conflict  were  unequal.  The  savages  had  greatly  the  ad- 
vantage in  numbers,  and  were  well  armed  with  pikes, 
guns,  and  swords.  But  Gallup  was  an  English  sailor. 
He  had  two  guns,  two  pistols,  and  some  duck-shot.  With 
these  he  kept  up  so  brisk  a  fire,  that  the  Indians  retreated 
below.  He  then  ran  against  their  vessel  with  his  own, 
striking  so  severe  a  blow  that  six  of  the  Indians,  in  their 
fright,  jumped  overboard.  Repeating  this  manoeuvre, — 
in  unconscious  imitation  of  Athenian  naval  tactics,  —  he 
saw  four  more  Indians  follow  their  companions,  leav- 
ing but  four  on  board.  When  he  sprang  on  the  deck, 
two  of  these  came  up  and  surrendered  themselves,  and 
were  bound  hand  and  foot ;  the  other  two  were  shut  under 
the  hatches.  The  body  of  Oldham  was  on  board,  still 
warm,  the  head  cloven,  the  hands  and  feet  cut  ofF.^ 

When  the  intelligence  reached  Boston,  it  occasioned  the 
greater  uneasiness  on  account  of  the  unsettled  state  of 
relations  with  the  Pequots,  with  whom  also  it  was  feared 
that  the  Narragansetts  would  be  induced  to  conspire. 
A.ip.  24.  After  consultation  with  "  the  Magistrates  and  min- 
Expedition  jstcrs,"  Govcmor  Vane  despatched  ninetv  men  to 
Block-I^<land-  Loug  Islaud  Sound,  in  three  small  vessels,  under 
the  command  of  Endicott  of  Salem,  and  of  four 

1  Wintbrop,  I.  189,  190. 


ers. 


Chap.  XI.]  CONNECTICUT.  459 

company  officers,  one  of  whom,  Captain  John  Unclerhill, 
has  written  an  account  of  this  expedition,  and  of  the  more 
important  one  which  followed.  A  sort  of  Friar  Tuck,  — 
devotee,  bravo,  libertine,  and  buffoon  in  equal  parts,  — 
Underhill  takes  a  memorable  place  among  the  eccentric 
characters  who  from  time  to  time  break  what  is  altogether 
too  easily  assumed  to  have  been  the  dead  level  of  New- 
England  gravity  in  those  days.  He  had  been  a  soldier  in 
Ireland,  m  Spain,  and  more  recently  in  the  Netherlands, 
where  he  "  had  spoken  freely  to  Count  Nassau."^  He  was 
brought  over  by  Governor  Winthrop  to  train  the  people 
in  military  exercises,  and  was  one  of  the  Deputies  from 
Boston  m  the  first  General  Court. 

It  was  Endicott's  earliest  trust  of  this  kind,  and  the 
manner  in  which  he  acquitted  himself  of  it  does  not  con- 
stitute one  of  the  most  creditable  portions  of  his  history. 
He  killed  or  wounded  some  of  the  Block-Islanders,  burned 
their  houses,  staved  their  canoes,  and  cut  down  their  corn.^ 


1  Antinomians  and  Familists,  &c.,  41.  bis  wife,  though  she  be  a  ■woman.     It 

2  Underhill  says  (Newes  from  Amer-  was  strange  to  nature  to  think  a  man 
ica,  8)  that  fourteen  of  the  Block-  should  be  bound  to  fulfil  the  humor  of 
Islanders  were  killed.  But  perhaps  he  a  woman,  what  arms  he  should  carry ; 
was  romancing.  According  to  Winthrop  but  you  see  God  will  have  it  so,  that  a 
(I.  194),  "they  could  not  tell  what  men  woman  should  overcome  a  man.  What 
they  killed,  but  some  were  wounded,  with  Delilah's  flattery,  and  with  her 
and  carried  away  by  their  fellows."  He  mournful  tears,  they  must  and  will  have 
afterwards  learned  (Ibid.,  196)  that  only  their  desire,  when  the  hand  of  God  goes 
one  Block-Islander  was  killed  outright.  along  in  the  matter Therefore 

Underhill  (Newes,  &c.,  5,  C)  relates  let  the  clamor  be  quenched  I  daily  hear 

his  own  experiences  on  this   occasion :  in   my   ears,   that   New-England    men 

"  Myself  received  an  arrow  through  my  usurp  over  their  wives,  and  keep  them 

coat-sleeve,  a  second  against  my  helmet  in  servile  subjection.      The  country  is 

on  the  forehead,  so  as  if  God  in  his  prov-  wronged   in   this   matter,   as  in  many 

idence  had  not  moved  the  heart  of  my  things  else.     Let  this  precedent  satisfy 

wife  to  persuade  me  to  carry  it  along  the  doubtful,  for  that  comes  from  the 

with  me  (which  I  was  unwilling  to  do),  example  of  a  rude  soldier.     If  they  be 

I  had  been  slain.      Give  me  leave  to  so  courteous  to  their  wives  as  to  take 

observe   two  things  from  hence  :  first,  their  advice   in  warlike  matters,   how 

when  the  hour  of  death  is  not  yet  come,  much  more  kind  is  the  tender,  affec- 

you  see  God  useth  weak  means  to  keep  tionate  husband  to  honor   his   wife  as 

his  purpose   unviolated ;    secondly,  let  the  weaker  vessel.     Yet  mistake  not. 

no  man  despise  advice  and  counsel  of  I  say  not  that  they  are  bound  to  call 


460  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  1 

E,e-embarking,  he  j)roceedecl  westward,  and  delivered  his 
message  to  the  Pequots,  includino:  a  demand  for 

Expedition  &  M  '  O 

against  the  thc  surrcndei*  of  the  murderers  of  Stone,  the 
payment  of  a  thousand  fathoms  of  wampum, 
and  the  deUvery  of  hostages  for  future  good  conduct. 
He  was  answered  with  what  he  thought  treacherous  ex- 
cuses, and  could  get  no  hearing  from  the  chiefs.  When 
the  party  with  whom  he  conferred  had  thus  gained  the 
time  they  wanted  for  preparation,  they  discharged  their  ar- 
rows at  his  men,  and  took  to  flight.  He  burned  some 
wigwams  and  canoes,  collected  a  quantity  of  corn,  and  re- 
turned to  Boston  without  loss.  It  was  afterwards  reported 
by  the  Narragansetts  "  that  thirteen  of  the  Pequots  were 
killed,  and  forty  wounded."  ^ 

The  movement,  instead  of  intimidating,  as  had  been 
hoped,  did  but  irritate  that  warlike  nation.  Both  the  Con- 
necticut and  the  Plymouth  people  complained  of  it,  as  hav- 
ing been  ill-conducted.  Sassacus  made  the  most  vigorous 
endeavors  to  engage  the  Narragansetts,  the  hereditary  ene- 
mies of  his  tribe,  in  an  alliance  for  exterminating  the  Eng- 
lish in  all  their  settlements.  There  was  great  probability 
that  these  endeavors  would  succeed ;  and,  had  he  been 
able  to  conciliate  the  Narragansetts,  and  to  enlist  or  over- 
awe the  Mohegans,  there  was  no  power  in  the  colonists 
to  make  head  against  him,  and  the  days  of  civilized  New 
England  would  have  been  numbered  and  finished  near 
their  beginning.  The  ancient  hostility  of  the  Narragan- 
setts to  their  savage  rivals  prevailed,  enforced  by  the 
diplomacy  of  Roger  Williams,  who,  at  the  hazard  of  his 
life,  visited  their  settlements  to  counteract  the  solicitations 
with  which  they  were   addressed."      Determined    by   his 

their  wives  in  council,  tlioufrh  they  are  ^  Wintlirop,  I.  190. 

bound  to  take  tlieir  private  advice  (?o  ~  "  Three  (hiys  and  nights  my  busi- 

far  as  they  see  it  n)ake  for  their  advan-  ness  fomed  me  to  lodge  and  mix  with 

tagc  and  their  good)  ;   instance  Abra-  the  bloody  Pequot  ambassadors,  whose 

ham."     The  parenthesis  leaves  a  pretty  hands   and    arms,    methought,    reeked 

wide  margin  for  domestic  insubordina-  with  the  blood  of  my  countrymen,  mur- 

tion.  dered  and  massacred  by  them  on  Con- 


CiiAP.  XL]  CONNECTICUT.  461 

influence,  some  of  the  Narrajransett  chiefs  came  to  Boston 
in  the  autumn,  and  concluded  a  treaty  of  peace  and  alli- 
ance with  the  colonists.  The  furious  and  formidable  Pe- 
qiiots  were  to  fight  their  battle  alone. 

They  spared  no  measures  of  a  nature  to  spread  conster- 
nation and  provoke  resentment.  In  the  autumn,  they 
caught  one  Butterfield  near  Gardiner's  garrison, 
and  he  was  never  heard  of  more.  A  few  days 
after,  they  took  two  men  out  of  a  boat,  and  murdered 
them  with  ingenious  barbarity,  cutting  ofl"  first  the  hands 
of  one  of  them,  then  his  feet.^  All  winter,  a  marauding 
party  kept  near  the  fort,  of  which  they  burned  Hostilities  of 
the  out-buildings  and  the  hay,  and  killed  the  "'j^.g^''"''^'" 
cattle.^  Towards  spring,  Gardiner  went  out  with  r^-i'-sa. 
ten  men  for  some  farming  work.  They  were  waylaid  by 
the  Indians,  and  three  of  them  were  slain.^  Soon  after, 
two  men,  sailing  down  the  river,  were  stopped  and  horri- 
bly mutilated  and  mangled ;  their  bodies  were  cut  in  two 
lengthwise,  and  the  parts  hung  up  by  the  river's  bank.^ 
A  man  who  had  been  carried  off  from  Wethersfield  was 
roasted  alive.^  All  doubt  as  to  the  necessity  of  vigorous 
action   was   over  when    a    band   of  a  hundred  Pequots 


necticnt  River,  and  from  -whom  I  could  worse.  His  captors  "  tied  him  to  a 
not  but  nightly  look  for  their  bloody  stake,  flayed  his  skin  off,  put  hot  era- 
knives  at  my  own  throat  also."  (Roger  bers  between  the  flesh  and  skin,  cut  off 
Williams's  Letter  to  Major  Mason,  in  his  fingers  and  toes  and  made  hat- 
Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  I.  277.) — In  Mass.  bands  of  them."  (Underbill,  Newes, 
Hist.  Coll.,  XXT.  159  -  161,  is  a  letter  &c.,  23.)  "  Many  honest  men  had  their 
from  Williams  to  Winthrop,  communi-  l)lood  shed,  yea,  and  some  flayed  alive, 
eating  to  him  the  views  of  the  Narra-  others  cut  in  pieces,  and  some  roasted 
gansetts  respecting  the  best  manner  of  alive."  (Lion  Gardiner,  Relation  of  the 
conducting  a  campaign  against  the  Pequot  Wars,  in  Mass.  Hist.  Coll., 
Pequots.  XXHL  151.) 

1  The  victim  was  John  Tilley,  for-  2  Winthrop,  I.  198. 

mcrly  overseer  for  the  Dorchester  Com-  3  Qardiner,  Relation,  &c  ,  in  Mass. 

pany  at  Cape   Ann;  —  "a  very  stout  Hist.  Coll.,  XXHL  143. 

man,    and    of    great    understanding."  ^  Trumbull,  History  of  Connecticut, 

(Winthrop,  I.  200.)     "  He  lived  three  I.  76. 

days    after    his   hands   were   cut   off."  ^  Gardiner,  Relation,  &c.,  in  Mass. 

(Ibid.)     Tilley's  companion  fared  yet  Hist.  Coll.,  XXIII.  143. 
39* 


462  IIISTOllY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

attacked  that  place,  killed  seven  men,  a  woman,  and  a 
child,  and  carried  away  two  girls.  They  had  now  put  to 
death  no  less  than  thirty  of  the  English. 

The  two  hundred  and  fifty  men  in  the  Connecticut 
towns  were  surrounded  by  Indian  tribes,  who,  from  their 
huntinji-arGunds  between  Hudson  Kiver  and  Narrac^ansett 
Bay,  could,  if  united,  have  fallen  upon  them  with  a  force 
of  at  least  four  or  five  thousand  warriors.  The  Pequots, 
already  engaged  in  open  hostility  against  them,  numbered 
not  fewer  than  a  thousand  fighting-men.  It  was  but  too 
probable  that  the  friendship  of  the  other  tribes  would  not 
long  be  proof  against  the  seductions  by  which  they  con- 
tinued to  be  plied.  There  seemed  no  alternative  for  the 
distressed  colonists  except  their  own  speedy  extermination 
or  a  sudden  exercise  of  courage  and  conduct  that  should 
crush  the  assailant.  "Women  and  children  were  not  to  be 
abandoned  to  savage  cruelty,  the  new  light  of  civilization 
in  Connecticut  was  not  to  be  extinguished,  if  the  desper- 
ate valor  of  a  few  stout  men  could  save  them.  And,  if  a 
bold  movement  should  succeed,  it  migbt  be  expected  to 
impress  a  salutary  lesson,  to  break  up  the  dangerous  ne- 
gotiations which  had  been  on  foot,  to  settle  for  the  future 
the  relations  of  the  parties,  and  to  entail  a  lasting  enjoy- 
ment of  security  and  peace. 

Massachusetts  and  Plymouth  were  solicited  for  aid.  At 
an  extraordinary  session  of  the  General  Court  of  Massa- 
chusetts, "  assembled  for  the  special  occasion  of 

April  18.  '.  .  1         T^ 

prosccutmg  the  war  aganist  the  requots,  it  was 
agreed  and  ordered,  that  the  war,  having  been  undertaken 
on  just  ground,  should  be  seriously  prosecuted,"  and  that 
for  this  purpose  there  should  be  a  levy  of  a  hundred  and 
sixty  men,  and  the  sum  of  six  hundred  pounds.-^  Ply- 
mouth in  like  manner  determined  to  make  a  levy  of  forty 
men.~  But  no  time  could  be  spared  for  waiting  till  these 
troops  should  come  up.     A  Connecticut  force  of  ninety 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  192.  2  p]ym.  Col.  Rec,  I.  60-62. 


Chap.  XL]  CONNECTICUT.  463 

men,  forty-two  of  whom  were  funiished  by  Hartford,  thirty 
by  Wmdsor,  and  eighteen  by  Wethersfield,  was  placed  un- 
der the  command  of  Captain  John  Mason.^     This    May  j. 
officer  had  served  in  the  Netherlands  under  Sir  captain 
Thomas  Fairfax,  who  had  such  esteem  for  him, 
that,  when  he  was  General,  several  years  after,  of  the  forces 
of  Parliament,  he  wrote  to  urge  him  to  return  to  England, 
and   help   the   patriot  cause."      Comin^  over   to 

^  ^  ^  1632. 

ISIassachusetts  and  joining  Ludlow's  settlement, 
he  was  employed  with  Gallup,  who  has  just  been  men- 
tioned, in  an  unsuccessful  cruise  after  a  piratical  vessel, 
and  was  a  member  of  a  committee  to  direct  fortifications 
at  Boston,  Charlestown,  Dorchester,  and  Castle  Island.^ 
He  was  two  years  a  Deputy  from  Dorchester  to  the  Gen- 
eral Court,**  before  he  accompanied  his  fellows-townsmen 
to  the  bank  of  the  Connecticut. 

Mason  was  first  despatched  W'ith  twenty  men  to  re- 
inforce the  garrison  at  the  river  s  mouth  ;  but  meeting 
Underbill  there,  who  had  just  arrived  with  an  equal  force 
from  Massachusetts,  he  returned  with  his  detachment  to 
Hartford,  whence  he  proceeded  down  the  river  a  1637. 
second  time,  taking  with  him  now  all  his  levy,  ^'=»yi"- 
besides  seventy  friendly  Indians.  The  whole  were  em- 
barked in  three  small  vessels.  The  Reverend  Mr.  Stone, 
chaplain  of  the  expedition,  acted  a  part  in  it  second  only 
in  importance  to  that  of  the  commander.  Uncas,  the 
Mohegan  chief,  led  the  Indian  allies.  An  apprehension 
of  their  treachery  weighed  heavily  on  the  spirits  of  the 
troops ;  but  they  proved  faithful,  though  they  rendered 
no  effective  service. 

From  the  fort.  Mason  took  along  with  him  Underbill 
with  his  twenty  men,   sending  back  twenty  of  his  own 

1  The  preparations  for  this  war  con-  2  Prince's    Introduction   to  Mason's 

stituted  the  business  of  the  first  General  History  of  the  Pequot  War. 

Court  held  in  Connecticut.    (Conn.  Col.  3  Mass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  106,  124. 

Rec,  9,  10.)  4  Ibid.,  135,  156. 


464  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

party  for  the  better  security  of  the  exposed  settlements. 

Here  a  question  of  great  importance  divided  the 

ments  against  opinious  of  thc  couucil  of  officers.     Mason's  or- 

the  Pequots.  i  i  -r»  -r»  •  t 

ders  were  express  to  land  at  requot  liiver,  and 
attack  the  enemy  on  their  western  frontier.  He  knew 
that  to  be  the  side  from  which  they  were  expecting  to  be 
invaded,  and  which  they  had  strengthened  accordingly, 
and  he  was  desirous  of  approaching  them  through  the 
Narragansett  country,  in  their  rear.  His  officers  shrank 
from  taking  the  responsibility  of  disobeying  the  instruc- 
tions, and  leaving  their  homes  so  long  undefended  as 
the  protracting  of  the  campaign  through  several  days 
would  require.  Mason,  finding  himself  left  alone,  pro- 
posed to  defer  the  decision  till  the  next  morning,  and  that, 
during  the  night,  the  chaplain  should  seek  Divine  direc- 
tion in  prayer.  Without  doubt  the  devout  Stone  prayed 
earnestly ;  it  may  be  supposed  that  he  also  took  care  to 
inform  himself,  and  make  up  an  opinion,  on  the  merits  of 
the  case.  Early  in  the  morning,  he  went  on  shore  to 
head-quarters,  to  declare  that  the  Captain's  plan  of  the 
campaign  was  the  correct  one.  A  council  of  war  was 
forthwith  called,  which  unanimously  determined  on  its 
prosecution. 

Accordingly,  the  little  squadron  set  sail  from  the  fort, 
and  arrived  on  the  following  evening  at  its  destination, 
near  the  entrance  of  Narragansett  Bay,  at  the  foot 
of  what  is  now  called  Tower  Hill,  which  overlooks 
Point  Judith.  The  next  day,  the  party  kept  their  Sabbath 
quietly  on  shipboard  ;  and  then  came  a  storm  which  pre- 
vented them  from  disembarking  till  Tuesday  evening. 
Mason  had  an  interview  with  the  sachem  of  the  friendly 
Narragansetts,  who  engaged  to  reinforce  him  with  two 
hundred  men  of  his  own  and  as  many  of  the  neighboring 
Nyantic  tribe.  Hei-e,  too,  Mason  received  a  message  from 
Providence,  informing  him  of  the  arrival  of  a  Massachusetts 
party  at  that  place  under  Captain  Patrick,  and  requesting 


Chap.  XI.]  CONNECTICUT.  465 

him  to  wait  till  it  could  come  up.  But  a  rapid  move- 
ment was  thought  to  be  of  even  more  consequence  than 
an  augmented  force. 

On  the  day  following  his  debarkation,  Mason,  at  the 
head  of  seventy-seven  brave  Englishmen  (the  rest  being 
left  in  charge  of  the  vessels),  sixty  frightened  Mohegans, 
and  four  hundred  more  terrified  Narragansetts  and  Ny an- 
tics, marched  twenty  miles  westward  towards  the 

-r»  r  -11  May  24. 

requot  country,  to  a  tort  occupied  by  some  sus- 
pected neutrals.  For  fear  lest  intelligence  should  be  con- 
veyed, this  fort  was  invested  for  the  night.  On  Thursday, 
after  a  march  of  about  fifteen  miles,  to  a  place  lying  five 
miles  northwest  of  the  present  principal  village  of  Stoning- 
ton,  they  encamped,  an  hour  after  dark,  near  to  a  hill,  upon 
which,  according  to  information  received  from  their  al- 
lies, (who,  "being  possessed  with  great  fear,"  had  now 
all  fallen  behind,)  stood  the  principal  strong-hold  of  the 
Pequots.  It  was  evident  that  no  alarm  had  been  given, 
for  the  sentinels  could  hear  the  noisy  revelling  within 
the  place,  which  was  kept  up  till  midnight.  The  savages, 
who  from  the  heights  had  seen  the  vessels  pass  to  the 
eastward  along  the  Sound,  supposed  that  the  settlers  had 
abandoned  their  hostile  intentions  in  despair. 

Their  fort  was  a  nearly  circular  area  of  an  acre  or  two, 
enclosed  by  trunks  of  trees,  twelve  feet  high  or  there- 
abouts, set  firmly  in  the  ground,  so  closelv  as 

1   .,  ,         .  Assault  on 

to  exclude  entrance,  while  the  interstices  served  the  Pequot 
as  port-holes  for  marksmen.      Within,  arranged 
along   two  lanes,   were  some  seventy  wigwams,   covered 
with  matting  and  thatch.      At  two  points  for  entrance, 
spaces  were  left  between  the  timbers,  these  intervals  being 
protected  only  by  a  slighter  structure,  or  loose  branches.^ 

1  I  recently  walked  over  this  ground.  Mystic  River.    The  site  of  the  fort,  two 

Porter's  Rocks,  among  which  the  party  or  three  miles  down  the  western  side  of 

lay  hid  over  night,  make  a  picturesque  the  river  towards  Mystic  Village,  is  a 

feature  of  the  scenery  at  the  head  of  gentle  elevation  near  the  road-side, — 


466  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

At  these  points,  Mason  and  Undeihill  were  to  force  an 
entrance,  each  at  the  head  of  half  the  Englishmen,  while 
those  of  the  Indian  allies  who  remained  (the  Nyantics  and 
Narragansetts  having  mostly  disappeared)  should  invest 
the  fort  in  a  circle,  and  arrest  the  fugitives.  The  anxie- 
ties of  a  night,  which  was  to  be  succeeded  by  a  fierce  and 
momentous  conflict,  did  not  prevent  the  weary  soldiers 
from  sleeping  so  soundly,  that,  when  the  commander 
roused  himself  and  l^hem,  he  feared  that  the  propitious 
hour  for  a  surprise  had  been  lost.  But  still,  before  break- 
ing up  their  camp,  they  took  time  to  join  in  prayer.  Two 
hours  before  dawn,  under  a  bright  moonlight,  the  little 
band  was  set  in  motion  towards  the  fort,  two  miles  dis- 
tant. Mason  had  come  within  a  few  feet  of  the  sally- 
port which  he  was  seeking,  when  a  dog  barked,  and 
the  cry  of  Owanux !  Oivanux !  "  Englishmen  !  English- 
men !"  which  immediately  followed,  showed  that  the 
alarm  was  given.  With  sixteen  men,  he  instantly 
pushed  into  the  enclosure.  Underbill  did  the  same  on 
the  opposite  side.  The  terrified  sleepers  rushed  out  of 
their  wigwams,  but  soon  sought  refuge  in  them  again 
from  the  English  broadswords  and  fire-arms.  Their 
number  w^as  too  great  to  be  dealt  with  by  such  weapons. 
Snatching  a  live  brand  from  a  wigwam,  Mason  threw  it 
on  a  matted  roof,  Underbill  set  fire  in  his  quarter  with 
a  train  of  powder,  and  the  straw  village  was  presently  in 
flames.  All  was  over  in  an  hour.  The  muskets  of  the 
English  brought  down  those  who  escaped  the  confla- 
gration, and  most  of  the  stragglers  who  avoided  this 
fate  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  native  allies,  who  had 
kept  cautiously  aloof  from  the  conflict,  but  had  no  mercy 
on  the  fugitives.      "  It  is  reported  by  themselves,"   says 

a  mowing  field  -when  I  saw  it,  —  on  the  tion  of  the  fort,  accompanied  with  a  rude 

farm    of    the    Widow    Fish.       Captain  engraved  representation  of  the  fight,  of 

Underhill,  in   his  tract,   "  Newcs  from  wliich  the  annexed  i)late  is  a  reduced 

America,"  has  given  a  minute  descrip-  facsimile. 


.^^•n."<^     \J        Wis 


6 


•  w/^^'  ipfhA'&w^nfla^id,  ccracc/'a^i^-^lh'-' 


Chap.  XL]  CONNECTICUT.  467 

Underhill,  "  that  there  were  about  four  hundred  souls  in 
this  fort,  and  not  above  five  of  them  escaped  out  of  our 
hands."  ^  According  to  other  accounts,  seven  hundred  per- 
ished. Of  the  English  only  two  men  were  killed,  but  the 
number  of  wounded  was  more  than  a  quarter  of  the  force.^ 

The  reader  is  impatient  to  turn  from  a  scene  so  distress- 
ing to  humanity.  Never  was  a  war  so  just  or  so  neces- 
sary, that  he  who  should  truly  exhibit  the  details  of  its 
prosecution  would  not  find  the  sympathy  of  gentle  hearts 
deserting  him  as  he  proceeded.  Between  right  public 
policy  and  the  sufibring  which  sometimes  it  brings  upon 
individuals  there  is  a  wide  chasm,  to  be  bridged  over  by  an 
argument  with  which  the  feelings  do  not  readily  go  along. 
When,  for  urgent  reasons  of  public  safety,  it  has  been  de- 
termined to  take  the  desperate  risk  of  sending  scores  of 
men  into  the  field  to  encounter  as  many  hundreds,  and 
to  be  set  upon,  if  they  should  be  worsted,  by  as  many 
thousands,  the  awful  conditions  of  the  case  forbid  being 
dainty  about  the  means  of  winning  a  victory,  or  about 
using  it  in  such  a  manner  that  the  chance  shall  not  have 
to  be  tried  again.  At  all  events,  from  the  hour  of  that 
carnage,  Connecticut  was  secure.  There  could  now  be 
unguarded  sleep  in  the  long-harassed  homes  of  the  set- 
tlers. It  might  be  hoped  that  civilization  was  assured  of 
a  permanent  abode  in  New  England.^ 

Mason  had  a  narrow  escape.  An  Indian  close  by  had 
taken  deliberate  aim  at  him,  when  Mason's  orderly  made 
a  spring  at  the  savage  just  in  time  to  cut  the  bow-string.'* 
There  was  another  Indian  fort  four  or  five  miles  further 
west,  near  the  way  to  Pequot  Harbor,  where  he  had  ap- 

1  Newes  from  America,  39.  revenge,  they  shall  never  hear  of  more 

2  Mason,  Pequot  War,  141.  harm  from  them."  (Vincent,  Mass.  Hist. 

3  "  They  are  assured  of  their  peace  Coll.,  XXVI.  42.)     The  recent  havoc 
by  killing  the  barbarians,  better  than  committed  by  the  savages  in  Virginia 
our  English  Virginians  -were  by  being  was  not  likely  to  be  out  of  their  minds, 
killed  by  them.    For  having  once  terri-         ^  Hubbard,  Narrative  of  the  Indian 
fied  them  by  severe  execution  of  just  Wars,  38. 


468  HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

pointed  to  meet  his  vessels.    He  did  not  know  the  way  out 
of  the  country.      His   movements   were  encum- 

Return  of  •' 

Bias.^n's  borcd  by  his  wounded,  who,  with  their  bearers, 
amounted  to  full  half  his  force ;  his  scanty  sup- 
ply of  ammunition  and  food  was  spent ;  ^  his  surgeon  had 
been  left  behind  at  the  Narragansett  landing;  and  the 
heat  of  the  weather  was  overpowering.  As  the  party 
kept  on  their  slow  way,  they  saw  approaching  more  than 
three  hundred  savages  from  the  other  fort,  who,  informed 
of  the  morning's  work,  were  tearing  their  hair,  stamping 
on  the  ground,  and  clamoring  for  revenge.  Hiring  his 
allies  to  carry  the  wounded,  Mason  managed  to  keep  up 
the  spirits  of  his  exhausted  men,  and  to  hold  the  assail- 
ants at  bay  while  he  pursued  his  impeded  march.  Fifty 
of  his  Narragansetts,  set  upon  by  the  Pequots,  took  to 
flight,  and  he  had  to  detach  Underbill  with  a  party  for 
their  rescue.  At  length,  as  he  reached  an  eminence,  at 
ten  o'clock  in  the  morning,  his  eyes  were  gladdened  by 
the  sight  of  Pequot  Harbor,  and  of  his  vessels  coming  to 
anchor  within  it.  The  weary  conquerors  thanked  God 
and  took  courage,  owning,  in  the  spirit  of  the  time,  the 
special  Providence  that  sent  them  such  relief.  Their  ap- 
pearance on  the  heights,  "  with  colors  flying,"  gave  the  sea- 
men the  first  notice  of  their  approach,  their  drum  having 
been  "left  at  the  rendezvous  the  night  before."  At  even- 
ing they  went  to  rest  on  board  the  vessels,  in  which  they 
found  the  company  from  Massachusetts  under  Captain 
Patrick ;  it  had  arrived  at  Point  Judith  after  the  depart- 
ure of  the  land  expedition,   and   been   taken  on  board. 


1  "  Our  commons  were  very  short,  the  bottle  would  presently  recover  such 

there  beinj;  a  general  scarcity  through-  as  fainted   away,   which  haj)j)ene(l    by 

out  the  Colony  of  all  sorts  of  provision,  the    extremity   of    the    heat)."      One 

We  had  but  one  pint  of  strong  doubts    whether   the   arrangements    of 

liquors  among  us  in  our  whole  march,  the    Connecticut   commissariat    (Conn, 

but  what  the  wilderness  afforded  (the  Col.  llec,  I,  9,  10)  arc  more  provoca- 

bottle  of  lifjuor  V)eing  in  my  hand,  and  tive  of  smiles  or  tears, 
■when  it  was  empty,  the  very  smelling  to 


Chap.  XL]  CONNECTICUT.  469 

The  first  care  was  to  despatch  the  greater  part  of  the 
force  for  the  protection  of  the  towns.  Then,  sending 
round  the  wounded  by  sea,  and  scouring  the  intervening 
country  with  what  remained  of  his  command,  Mason  led 
them  by  land  to  the  fort,  where  they  were  "  nobly  enter- 
tained by  Lieutenant  Gardiner,  with  many  great  guns," 
and  where  they  rested  for  their  Sabbath.  The  next  week 
saw  the  whole  dispersed  to  their  homes  in  the  three 
towns.  The  imagination  easily  pictures  the  welcome 
which  greeted  the  deliverers.^ 

The  remnant  of  the  doomed  nation  collected  in  the  west- 
ern fort.  After  stormy  debate  on  the  question  whether 
they  should  fall  upon  the  Narragansetts  or  upon  the  Eng- 
lish, or  seek  safety  by  flight,  they  resolved  on  the  conclusion 
last  course ;  and,  burning  their  wigwams  and  their  "^^ ">«"'"• 
supplies,  they  set  off  to  join  the  Mohawks  on  the  Hud- 
son. Giving  new  provocation  by  putting  to  death  some 
Englishmen  on  the  way,  they  were  pursued  by  Mason 
with  forty  men,  who  were  joined  by  one  hundred  and 
twenty  from  Massachusetts,  under  Stoughton.  A  party 
of  them,  some  three  hundred  in  number,  was  overtaken 
a  little  west  of  where  now  stands  New  Haven,  encamped 
in  a  spot  surrounded  by  quagmires,  which  rendered  it 
difficult  of  access.  The  English  sent  an  interpreter, 
with  a  proposal,  which  was  accepted,  for  a  surrender  of 
the  old  men,  women,  and  children,  whom  they  were 
"  loath   to   destroy."     In  the  foggy  morning  which  fol- 

1  The  special  contemporaneous  au-  the  gratification  of  curiosity,  with  ■which 

thorities  for  this  carapaisrn  are  Under-  purpose  he  had   travelled   extensively 

hill's  "Newes  from  New  England";  "A  elsewhere.     (See  Hunter's  Letter,   in 

True  Relation  of  the  Late  Battle,"  &c.,  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  XXXL  186.)     Some 

(London,  1638,)  by  P.  Vincent ;  Cap-  of  the  Latin  verses  prefixed  to  Vincent's 

tain  Mason's  "  Brief  History  of  the  Pe-  tract  contain  just  reflections  upon  this 

quot  War  "  ;  and  Lieutenant  Gardiner's  war,  not  ungracefully  expressed. 
"  Relation  of  the  Pequot  Warres."   Vin-         A  detailed  and  elegant  history  of  the 

cent  was  a  clergyman  of  the  Church  of  Pequot  War  is  given  by  Dr.  Ellis  in  his 

England,  who  passed  a  little  time  in  this  Life  of  Captain  Mason  (Sparks's  Amer- 

country,  simply,  as  far  as  appears,  for  ican  Biography,  Vol.  XIIL). 

VOL.  I.  -40 


470 


HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 


[EOOK  I. 


lowed,  the  warriors  made  a  sally,  and  seventy  broke 
through  and  escaped.  Stragglers  of  the  tribe  were  put  to 
death  in  considerable  numbers  by  neighboring  Indians, 
who  all  seem  to  have  owed  the  Pequots  an  ancient 
grudge.  Sassacus  was  killed  by  the  Mohawks,  to  whom 
he  had  fled.  The  Pequot  nation  became  extinct,  the  sur- 
vivors being  merged,  under  English  mediation,  in  the 
Narragansett,  Mohegan,  and  Nyantic  tribes.  And  from 
savage  violence  the  land  had  rest  forty  years} 


1  "  An  aboriginal  coalition,  first  sug- 
gested by  the  Pequod  chief  and  aftcr- 
wai'ds  carried  into  such  terrible  effect 
by  King  Philip,  at  this  early  period 
might  have  resulted  in  the  extermina- 
tion of  the  English ;  and  some  solitary 
ship,  afterwards  touching  at  Massachu- 
setts Bay,  would  have  beheld  the  still- 
ness of  the  wilderness  where  was  ex- 
pected the  busy  hum  of  life,  and  have 
earned  home  the  startling  news  that 
Transatlantic  Puritanism  had  disap- 
peared." Such  is  the  just  reflection  of 
a  recent  writer.  (The  Puritan  Com- 
monwealth, 118,  119.)  If  I  do  not 
often  refer  to  his  interesting  work,  it  is 
not  lor  want  of  a  thorough  acquaintance 
with  it.  It  is  one  of  the  marvels  of  our 
time.  But  for  its  references  to  later 
events,  it  might  have  been  written  by  a 
chaplain  of  James  the  Second.  Its  key- 
note is  sounded  in  its  first  sentence : 
"  When  King  Charles  the  Martyr,"  &c. 
Whoever  wishes  to  be  resolved  respect- 
ing its  historical  value  may  look  at  the 
account  (114-118)  of  the  transactions 
above  described  ;  or  at  the  chronology 
of  the  attack  on  the  Narragansett  fort 
(132,  142)  i  or  at  the  statement  (192) 


of  the  time  when  "  the  question  whether 
the  civil  magistrate  may  lawfully  pun- 
ish for  heresy,  first  arose " ;  or  at  the 
commemoration  (419)  of"  Samuel  Mav- 
erick, a  clergyman  of  the  Church  of 
England,  already  settled  on  a  flourishing 
plantation  at  Noddle's  Island."  "  The 
Indians,"  according  to  this  writer  (111, 
112),  were  "  a  race  proverbial  for  fidel- 
ity in  keeping  their  treaties,"  &c.  And 
for  this  characteristic  of  theirs  he  refers 
to  "Hutchinson,  Vol.  I.  p.  61,"  where 
Hutchinson  had  written  "  Indian  fidel- 
ity is  proverbial  in  New  England,  as 
Punic  was  at  Rome."  In  speaking  of 
the  time  after  Philip's  war  in  1675-6, 
he  says  (144,  145)  :  "  Not  a  family 
remained  in  Massachusetts  or  Ply- 
mouth but  mourned  the  death  of  a  rel- 
ative or  friend  ;  after  having  caused 
a  loss  of  property  to  the  amount  of 
nearly  a  million  of  dollars,  the  (jrealcsi 
7nisfortune  of  all  to  the  tlirifty  inhabilants, 
Philip  had  finished  the  work  of  divine 
retribution,"  &c.  It  is  not  necessary  to 
believe  that  he  who  could  write  such 
words  had  a  strangely  bad  heart.  The 
composition  was  hasty,  and  the  pub- 
lication was  posthumous. 


CHAPTEE  XII. 

The  war  against  the  Pequots  had  been  waged  by  the 
English  on  the  Connecticut  at  such  extreme  disadvantage, 
that  nothing  short  of  a  conviction  of  its  necessity  can  be 
supposed  to  have  induced  them  to  engage  in  it.  The  settle- 
ments which  undertook  to  equip  and  victual^  a  force  con- 
sisting of  more  than  one  third  of  their  adult  males,  were 
themselves  not  far  from  starvation.  In  the  summer  of  the 
principal  emigration,  the  labors  of  husbandry  had  been 
interrupted  by  those  of  making  roads  and  erecting  and 
fortifying  habitations.  In  the  autumn  there  were  only 
thirty  ploughs  in  Massachusetts,"  and  it  is  not  likely 
that  there  was  a  quarter  of  that  number  in  Connecticut. 
In  the  winter  which  followed,  the  cattle  suffered  from 
insufficiency  of  food  and  shelter  ;  and  farming  stock, 
and  provisions,  both  meat  and  grain,  bore  an  enormous 
price,  while  hunting  and  fishing  were  made  dangerous 
occupations  by  the  near  neighborhood  of  watchful  sav- 
ages. Nor  did  the  struggle,  successful  as  it  had  been,  fail 
to  bring  heavy  burdens  of  its  own.  While  so  large  a 
proportion  of  the  able-bodied  men  were  in  the  field, 
production  was  stinted  on  the  one  hand,^  and  debt  in- 
curred on  the  other.      Indian  corn  was  sold  for  twelve 

1  Votes  of  the  first  General  Court  of  those  that  remain  are  not  able  to  sup- 
Connecticut  fixed  the  proportions  of  ply  our  watches,  ■which  are  day  and 
supplies  to  be  furnished  to  the  troops  night,  that  our  people  are  scarce  able  to 
by  the  three  towns  respectively ;  there  stand  upon  their  legs.  And  for  plant- 
was  to  be  "  one  hogshead  of  good  beer  ing,  we  are  in  the  like  condition  with 
for  the  captain  and  minister  and  sick  you.  What  we  plant  is  before  our 
men."    (Conn.  Col.  Rec.,  I.  9.)  doors;   little  anywhere  else."     (Letter 

2  W^inthrop,  I.  206.  of  Ludlow  to  Pynchon  at  Springfield, 

3  "  Our  plantations  are  so  gleaned  May  17,  1637,  in  Mass.  Hist.  Coll., 
by  that   small  fleet  we  sent  out,  that  XVIII.  235.) 


472  HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

shillings  a  bushel,  at  the  time  ^vhen  a  tax  of  five  hundred 
and  fifty  pounds  was  levied  to  pay  the  expenses  of  the 
war,  and  the  towns  were  required  to  furnish  themselves 
with  military  stores,  and  the  individual  citizens  to  keep 
themselves  provided  with  arms  and  ammunition. 

"While  the  Pequot  campaign  was  going  on,  still  more 
serious  embarrassments  of  a  difi"erent  description  were 
crippling  the  energy  of  the  settlement  in  the  Bay.  When 
Patrick  and  Stoughton  were  despatched  to  Connecticut, 
they  left  the  elder  colony  rent  by  faction,  and  in  imminent 
danger  of  civil  war. 
r  Scarcely  were  the  Massachusetts  Magistrates  rid  of 
/  Roger  Williams,  when  they  found  themselves  engaged 
again  in  a  much  more  threatening  contest  than  what  he 
had  raised,  and  much  more  difficult  for  them  to  conduct, 
for  various  reasons,  one  of  which  was,  that  the  head  of 
Mrs.  Ann  opposltiou  was  a  capable  and  resolute  woman. 
Hutchinson,  rj^j^g  name  of  Mrs.  Ann  Hutchinson  is  dismally 
conspicuous  in  the  early  history  of  New  England.  She 
perhaps  well-nigh  brought  it  to  an  end  very  near  to  its 
beginning. 

She  had  come  to  Massachusetts  in  the  same  vessel  which 
bore  the  copy  of  the  commission,  to  the  two  Archbishops 

je3i,      and  nine  others  of  the  Privy  Council,  to  regulate 

Sept.  18.  foreign  plantations  and  call  in  charters,  —  a  co- 
incidence suited  to  render  internal  agitations  doubly  un- 
welcome.^ She  had  accompanied  her  husband  from  their 
home  at  Alford,  near  Boston,  in  Lincolnshire,  where  they 
had  enjoyed  a  good  estate.  He  is  described  by  Win- 
throp  as  "  a  man  of  a  very  mild  temper  and  weak  parts, 
/  and  wholly  guided  by  his  wife."  ^  She  had  spirit  and  tal- 
ent enough  for  both.  In  England,  she  had  found  no 
satisfactory  ministrations  of  religion  but  those  of  John 
Cotton,  and  of  John  Wheelwright,  her  brother-in-law ; 
and  her   unwillingness    to    lose    the   benefit  of  Cotton's 

1  WInthrop,  I.  143.  2  Jbid.,  295. 


Chap.  XII.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  473 

preaching  induced  her  to  emigrate.  On  the  voyage,  some 
eccentric  speculations  of  hers,  and  pretensions  to  direct 
revelation,  had  given  displeasure  to  her  fellow-passenger, 
Mr.  Symmes,  who  soon  after  their  arrival  became  minister 
of  Charlestown,  and,  in  that  capacity,  one  of  her  active 
opponents.  Small  causes  have  often  great  results ;  contra- 
diction on  one  part  leads  to  extravagant  assertion  on  the 
other;  and  it  is  not  impossible  that  the  accidental  petu- 
lances of  that  uncomfortable  voyage  may  have  had  some- 
thing to  do  with  the  crisis  in  the  fortunes  of  Massachu- 
setts which  followed.  As  early  as  the  time  when  Mrs. 
Hutchinson    and   her   husband   were  nominated 

October. 

as  members  of  the  Boston  church,  Symmes  gave 
some  information  of  her  vagaries,  which  occasioned  her 
admission  to  be  delayed.  She  soon  recommended  herself 
widely  as  a  kind  and  serviceable  neighbor,  especially  to 
persons  of  her  own  sex  in  times  of  sickness ;  and  by  these 
qualities,  united  with  her  energy  of  character  and  vivacity 
of  mind,  she  acquired  esteem  and  influence. 

The  first  mention  of  her  by  Winthrop  is  in  these  words : 
"  One  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  a  member  of  the  church  of  Bos- 
ton, a  woman  of  a  ready  wit  and  bold  spirit,  brought 
over  with  her  two  dangerous  errors :  first,  that  the  person 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  dwells  in  a  justified  person ;  second, 
that  no  sanctification  can  help  to  evidence  to  us  our  justi- 
fication. From  these  errors  grew  many  branches ;  as, 
first,  our  union  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  so  as  a  Christian 
remains  dead  to  every  spiritual  action,  and  hath  no  gifts 
nor  graces,  other  than  such  as  are  in  hypocrites,  nor  any 
other  sanctification  but  the  Holy  Ghost  himself."  -^ 

Mrs.  Hutchinson  attached  importance  to  her  doctrines 
and  expositions,  sufficient  to  lead  her  to  undertake  a  sort  of 
public  ministration  of  them.  It  had  been  the  practice  of 
the  male  members  of  the  Boston  church  to  hold  meetings  by 
themselves,  for  recapitulating  and  discussing  the  sermons 


1  Winthrop,  I.  200. 
40* 


474  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

of  their  ministers.  Mrs.  Hutchinson  instituted  similar 
assembhes  for  her  o^\ti  sex,  which,  at  one  time,  were  held 
twice  a  week.  In  the  want  of  social  meetings  of  other 
sorts,  it  is  not  matter  of  surprise  that  they  were  attended 
by  nearly  a  hundred  females,  some  of  whom  were  among 
the  principal  matrons  of  the  town.  Her  bold  criticisms 
were  set  off  by  a  voluble  eloquence,  and  an  imposing 
familiarity  with  Scripture.  Slie  bestowed  unqualified 
approbation  upon  Cotton  and  Wheelwright,^  whom  she 
declared  to  be  "  under  a  covenant  of  grace."  Of  the 
other  ministers  of  the  Colony,  she  spoke  more  and  more 
distrustfully  and  slightingly,  till  by  and  by  she  came  to 
pronounce  them  in  downright  terms  to  be  "  under  a  cov- 
enant of  works." 

When  the  strife  broke  out  in  public  action,  Mrs. 
Hutchinson  had  been  two  full  years  in  the  country.  The 
principal  proceedings  of  the  dispute  with  Williams  had 
passed  before  her  eyes,  without  any  evidence,  now  ex- 
tant, of  its  having  attracted  her  attention ;  from  which 
fact  a  not  unnatural  inference  is,  that  it  had  not  all  the 
prominence  at  the  time  which  has  been  since  ascribed  to 
it.  Meanwhile,  Mrs.  Hutchinson  had  secured  tlie  cham- 
Antinomian  piouship  of  uo  Icss  a  pcrsouagc  than  Vane,  the 
controversy,  youug  Govcmor  of  Massachusctts,^  besides  that 
of  Dummer  and  Coddington,  eminent  among  the  Magis- 
trates, and  of  other  influential  persons.  The  country 
towns  and  churches  proved  to  be,  on  the  whole,  strongly 
opposed  to  her,  while  all  the  members  of  the  Boston 
church  were  her  partisans  except  five.  Of  these  five, 
however,  were  Wilson,  the  pastor,  and  Winthrop,  lately 

1  AVheelwright  was  admitted  a  mcni-  he  left  the  country.  It  remained  as 
ber  of  the  Boston  church,  June  12,  jiart  of  a  building  which  was  removed 
1636,  seventeen  days  after  his  arrival,  only  about  thirty  years  ago.  It  stood 
He  had  been  "a silenced  minister  some-  upon  the  side  of  the  hill,  several  feet 
times  in  England."  (Winthrop,  I.  back  from  the  western  side  of  Tremont 
200.)  Street,  its  front  fence  beginning  some 

2  Vane  was  lodged  with  Cotton,  in  a  thirty  feet  from  the  corner  which  Tre- 
housc  which  he  gave  to  Cotton  when  mont  Street  made  with  Pemberton  Hill. 


tlie  minis- 
ters. 


Chap.  XII.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  475 

advanced  again  so  far  as  to  the  second  place  in  the  gov- 
ernment. Old  friends  were  estranged,  and  offensive  lan- 
guage was  freely  used.  Mrs.  Hutchinson  went  out  of 
church  as  the  hitherto  venerated  Wilson  rose  to  speak, 
and  others  followed  her  example  of  affront  in  the  pres- 
ence of  other  preachers. 

"  The  other  ministers  in  the  Bay,  hearing  of  these 
things,  came  to  Boston  at  the  time  of  a  General  Court, 
and  entered  conference  in  private  with  them,  to  interference 
the  end  they  might  know  the  certainty  of  these  "^ 
things,  and,  if  need  were,  they  mi^ht  write  to  the      'cse, 

Oct.  25. 

church  of  Boston  about  them,  to  prevent,  if  it 
were  possible,  the  dangers  which  seemed  hereby  to  hang 
over  that  and  the  rest  of  the  churches."  ^     For  the  present, 
Cotton  gave  them  satisfaction.     Wheelwright  was  not  so 
explicit.      A  proposal  was  made   in  the  Boston 

1  1  .,..  „  -i.  Oct.  30. 

church  to  associate  mm  in  ofnce  with  its  pastor 
and  teacher.  Winthrop,  acting  with  the  concurrence  of 
Wilson,  whom  the  delicacy  of  his  position  compelled  to 
reserve,  with  difficulty  succeeded  in  parrying  this  blow.^ 
But  the  transaction  did  not  fail  to  leave  heart-burning's. 
Wheelwright  was  presently  invited  to  a  church  gath- 
ered at  Mount  Wollaston. 

These  annoyances,  together  with  that  of  the  impend- 
ing Indian  war,  and  perhaps  others  of  a  more  personal 
nature,  disturbed  the  mind  of  the  young  and  inexperi- 
enced Governor.  He  had  scarcely  finished  half  his  term 
of  service  when  he  "  called  a  Court  of  Deputies, 

J-  '      Dec.  10 

to  the  end  he  might  have  free  leave  of  the  coun-  Perplexity 
try,"  having  received  "letters  from  his  friends  in 
England,  which  necessarily  required  his  presence  there." 
In  answer  to  the  dissuasive  considerations  which  were 
urged,  "  the  Governor  brake  forth  into  tears,  and  professed 
that,  howsoever  the  causes  propounded  for  his  departure 
were  such  as  did  concern  the  utter  ruin  of  his  outward 

1  Winthrop,  I.  201.  2  ibid.,  202. 


476  HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Rook  I. 

estate,  yet  he  would  rather  have  hazarded  all  than  have 
gone  from  them  at  this  time,  if  something  else  had  not 
pressed  him  more;  viz.  the  inevitable  danger  of  God's 
judgments  to  come  upon  us  for  these  differences  and  dis- 
sensions which  he  saw  amongst  us,  and  the  scandalous 
imputations  brought  upon  himself,  as  if  he  should  be  the 
cause  of  all,  and  therefore  he  thought  it  best  for  him  to 
give  place  for  a  time,  &c."  This  explanation  did  but 
cause  more  earnest  remonstrances ;  and  though  they  were 
withdrawn,  and  the  Court  finally  consented  to  his  de- 
parture, further  expostulations  on  the  part  of  the  Boston 
church,  to  which  he  "  expressed  himself  to  be  an  obedient 
child,"  finally  turned  him  from  his  design.^ 

A  meeting  of  Magistrates  and  elders  was  held,  "  to  ad- 
vise about  discovering  and  pacifying  the  differences  among 
the  churches  in  point  of  opinion."  Dudley  and  "  another 
of  the  Magistrates  "  urged  the  expediency  of  a  frank  decla- 
ration of  sentiments.  The  discussion  which  followed  was 
mainly  between  the  English  Commonwealth's  future  min- 
ister for  naval  affairs,  and  Cromwell's  future  chaplain. 
The  Governor  expressed  displeasure  that  the  clergy  had 
been  meeting  for  consultation  "  without  his  privity." 
Hugh  Peter,  who  may  have  apprehended  coercive  meas- 
ures on  his  part,  "  with  all  due  reverence  "  reproved  him, 
and  told  him  "  how  it  had  sadded  the  ministers'  spirits, 
that  he  should  be  jealous  of  their  meetings,  or  seem  to 
restrain  their  liberty,  &c.,"  and  "  that  before  he  came, 
within  less  than  two  years  since,  the  churches  were  at 
peace,  &c.,"  and  "  besought  him  humbly  to  consider  his 
youth,  and  short  experience  in  the  ways  of  God,  and  to 
beware   of  peremptory  conclusions,   which    he  perceived 

1  Winthrop,  T.  207,  208.     WinUirop  nor).    The  learned  editor  of  Winthrop, 

says  that  Vane  first  laid  his  letters  be-  however,  apparently  with  better  reason, 

fore  "  the  eoiincil,"  by  which  Hubbard  considers  "  the  council "  here  spoken  of 

(Chap.  XXXV.)  understood  the  Assist-  to  have  been  the  whole  board  of  Magis- 

ants  for  life  lately  chosen   (viz.  Win-  tratcs.    (Winthrop,  I.  207,  note.) 
throp  and  Dudley,  besides  the  Cover- 


Chap.  XII.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  477 

him  to  be  very  apt  unto."  By  "  all  the  Magistrates  ex- 
cept the  Governor  and  two  others,  and  all  the  ministers 
but  two,"  it  was  agreed  that  there  was  an  "  inevitable 
danger  of  separation,  if  these  differences  and  alienations 
among  brethren  were  not  speedily  remedied,"  the  blame 
of  which  they  "  laid  upon  these  new  opinions  risen  up."  ^ 
For  "a  very  sad  speech"  made  by  Mr.  Wilson,  in  main- 
tenance, as  we  should  say,  of  this  Resolve,  he  was  called 
to  account  by  the  Boston  church,  "  and  there  the 

•'  (ensure  of 

Governor  pressed  it  violently  against  him,  and  all  wiisonby 

■  .  1  -r>v  1  '"'^  church. 

the  congregation  except  the  Deputy  and  one  or 
two  more,  and  many  of  them  with  much  bitterness  and 
reproaches  ;  but  he  answered  them  all  with  words  of  truth 
and  soberness,  and  with  marvellous  wisdom."  The  pres- 
ent conclusion  of  the  matter  was,  that  Cotton,  who  dis- 
suaded any  stronger  measure  against  his  colleague,  "  gave 
him  a  grave  exhortation."  ^ 

Hitherto  the  Hutchinson  party  had  been  the  movers. 
Their  censure  of  Wilson  was  the  only  formal  proceed- 
hig,  ecclesiastical  or  civil,  which  had  yet  been  had  in  the 
progress  of  the  controversy ;  for  the  meeting  at  which 
the  passage  occurred  between  Vane  and  Peter  appears  to 
have  been  unofficial,  and  is  not  noticed  in  the  Court 
records.  Matters  were  tending  to  assume  another  phase. 
At  the  next  General  Court,  the  ministers  "  all  1C37, 
assembled  at  Boston,  and  agreed  to  put  off  all  ^^^'"''^^' 
lectures  for  three  weeks,  that  they  might  bring  things  to 
some  issue."  ^  Meantime,  "  other  opinions  broke  out 
publicly  in  the  church  of  Boston,"  of  a  character  to  occa- 
sion further  scandal ;  the  ministers  had  corresponded  with 
Mr.  Cotton,  to  their  partial  satisfaction  only ;  and  a  fast, 
appointed  by  authority,  had  been  kept  in  all  the 

^  ^  •'  •'  ^  Appointment 

churches,  on  account  of  "the  miserable  estate  of  cfafas^t. 
the  churches  in  Germany;  the  calamities  upon 

1  Winthrop,  I.  209.  3  Ibid.,  213.     Mass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  187. 

2  Ibid.,  209,  210. 


478  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

our  native  country,  the  bishops  making  havoc  in  the 
churches,  putting  down  the  faithful  ministers,  and  ad- 
vancing   popish   ceremonies   and   doctrines  ; the 

dangers  of  those  at  Connecticut,  and  of  ourselves  also  by 
the  Indians ;   and  the  dissensions  in  our  churches."  -^ 

The  fast  had  not  done  its  office.     That  necessity  for 

union  which  the  selection  of  topics  to  be  considered  on 

the  occasion  was  intended  to  enforce,  had  not  made  itself 

felt.     "  The  differences  in  the  said  points  of  re- 

Increase  of  -•• 

the  excite-     ligiou  incrcascd  more  and  more; every 

occasion   increased    the    contention,    and    caused 

great  alienation  of  minds ; and  it  began  to  be  as 

common  to  distinguish  between  men  by  being  under  a  cov- 
enant of  grace  or  a  covenant  of  works,  as  in  other  coun- 
tries between  Protestants  and  Papists."  The  Court  found 
or  believed  it  necessary  to  take  up  the  matter  in  earnest. 
The  ministers,  being  consulted,  gave  their  advice,  "  that, 
in  all  such  heresies  or  errors  of  any  church-members  as 
are  manifest  and  dangerous  to  the  state,  the  Court  may 
proceed  without  tarrying  for  the  church."  A  person  of 
some  consequence,  "  Stephen  Greensmith,  for  af- 

March  9.  .  in,  •     -  t.  r        /-i 

nrmmg  that  all  the  mmisters,  except  Mr.  Cotton, 
Mr.  Wheelwright,  and,  he  thought,  Mr.  Hooker,  did  teach 
a  covenant  of  works,  was  for  a  time  committed  to  the 
marshal,  and  after  enjoined  to  make  acknowledgment  to 
the  satisfaction  of  every  congregation,  and  was  fined  forty 
pounds."  ~  A  more  serious  matter  presented  itself  "  when 
Mr.  Wheelwright  was  to  be  questioned  for  a  sermon  which 
seemed  to  tend  to  sedition."  Wheelwright,  "  preaching  at 
,     the  last  fast,  inveighed  against  all  that  walked  in 

Censure  of  '  O  D 

Wheelwright  a  covcuant  of  works,  as  he  described  it  to  be,  viz. 

by  the  Court.  .  .  .  ^  .  .  ,  n 

such  as  maintam  sanctmcation  as  an  evidence  ot 
justification,  &c.,  and  called  them  Antichrists,  and  stirred 
up  the  people  against  them  with  much  bitterness  and 
vehemency.     For  this  he  was  called  into  the  Court,  and, 

1  Winthrop,  I.  212.  2  Mass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  189.     Winthrop,  I.  214. 


ClIAP.    XII.] 


MASSACHUSETTS. 


479 


his  sermon  being  produced,  lie  justified  it So,  after 

much  debate,  the  Court  adjudged  him  guilty  of  sedition, 
and  also  of  contempt,  for  that  the  Court  had  appointed 
the  fast  as  a  means  of  reconciliation  of  the  differences, 
&c.,  and  he  purposely  set  himself  to  kindle  and  increase 
them."  1 


1  Winthrop,  I.  215.  —  Both  the 
original  (or  what  seems  to  be  so)  of 
Wheelwright's  sermon,  and  an  ancient 
copy,  are  in  the  possession  of  the  Mas- 
sachusetts Historical  Society,  by  whose 
kindness  I  have  been  permitted  to  use 
them.  The  original,  which  appears  to 
have  once  been  in  the  possession  of 
John  Coggeshall,  "Wheelwright's  con- 
temporary and  adherent,  wants  a  few 
pages  at  the  beginning.  The  copy  is 
complete.  The  composition  is  of  that 
character  which  is  common  with  skilful 
agitators.  Along  with  disclaimers  of 
the  purpose  to  excite  to  physical  vio- 
lence, it  abounds  in  language  suitable 
to  bring  about  that  result.  The  follow- 
ing passage  may  serve  as  a  specimen  : 
"  The  way  we  must  take,  if  so  be  we 
will  not  have  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
taken  from  us,  is  this :  we  must  all  pre- 
pare for  a  spiritual  combat ;  we  must 
put  on  the  whole  armor  of  God  (Ephes. 
vi.),  and  must  have  our  loins  girt,  and 
be  ready  to  fight.  Behold,  the  bed  that 
is  Solomon's ;  there  is  threescore  valiant 
men  about  it,  valiant  men  of  Israel ; 
every  one  hath  his  sword  in  his  hand, 
being  expert  in  war,  and  hath  his  sword 
girt  on  his  thigh,  because  of  fears  in  the 
night.  If  we  will  not  fight  for  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  Christ  may  come  to  be 
surprised.  Solomon  lieth  in  his  bed, 
and  there  is  such  men  about  the  bed  of 
Solomon ;  and  they  watch  over  Solo- 
mon, and  will  not  suffer  Solomon  to  be 
taken  away.  And  who  is  this  Solomon 
but  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ ;  and  what  is 
the  bed  but  the  Church  of  true  believ- 
ers ;  and  who  are  these  valiant  men  of 
Israel,   but   all   the  children  of  God  ? 


They  ought  to  show  themselves  valiant ; 
they  should  have  their  swords  ready. 
They  must  fight  a  fight  with  spiritual 
weapons.  The  weapons  of  our  warfare 
are  not  carnal,  but  spiritual  (2  Cor.  x. 
4),  and  therefore,  wheresoever  we  live, 
if  we  would  have  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
to  be  abundantly  present  with  us,  we 
must  all  of  us  prepare  for  battle,  and 
come  out  against  the  enemies  of  the 
Lord.  And,  If  we  do  not  strive,  those 
under  a  covenant  of  works  wiU  pre- 
vail. We  must  have  a  special  care, 
therefore,  to  show  ourselves  courageous. 
All  the  valiant  men  of  David,  and  all 
the  valiant  men  of  Israel,  Barak,  and 
Deborah,  and  Jael,  all  must  out  and 
fight  for  Christ.  Curse  ye  Meroz,  be- 
cause they  came  not  out  to  help  the 
Lord  against  the  mighty  (Judges  v.  23). 
Therefore,  if  we  will  keep  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  and  his  person  and  power 
In  and  amongst  us,  we  must  fight." 
(Page  22  of  the  MS.  copy.) 

It  was  perhaps  well  that  this  sermon 
was  delivered  at  Braintree,  and  that  the 
angry  men  whom  It  stimulated  did  not 
pass  Winthrop's  house  In  returning  to 
their  homes.  Another  art  of  dema- 
gogues Wheelwright  perfectly  under- 
stood. By  exhorting  his  hearers  to 
prepare  themselves  to  be  martyrs,  he 
gave  them  to  understand  that  they  were 
in  danger  of  being  so,  and  that,  if  they 
preferred  not  to  be,  they  must  take  their 
measures  accordingly :  "  If  we  will  over- 
come, we  must  not  love  our  lives,  but 

be  willing  to  be  killed  like  sheep 

We  must  be  willing  to  lay  down  our 
lives,  and  shall  overcome  by  so  doing. 
Samson  slew  more  at  his  death  than  in 


480  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  fBooK  I. 

The  Governor,  joined  by  a  few  other  members  of  the 
Court,  offered  a  protest  against  this  proceeding ;  but  the 
Court  refused  to  receive  it.  The  Boston  church  also 
petitioned  in  AVheelwright's  behalf  The  Court  deferred 
Disaffection  hls  senteuce.  Contumacious  Boston  was  thought 
of  Boston.  ^Q  |-)g  jjqj.  ^  suitable  place  for  its  meetings  under 
present  circumstances,  and  a  motion  was  made  that  it 
should  next  assemble  at  Newtown.  The  Governor  refused 
to  take  the  vote ;  the  Deputy  excused  himself  from  doing 
it,  on  account  of  the  delicacy  of  his  position  as  a  Boston 
man.  Endicott  took  the  office  upon  himself,  and  the 
measure  was  carried.^ 

Had  the  calm  and  able  Winthrop  been  at  the  head  of 
the  government  during  these  transactions,  they  might 
General  Court  havc  had  a  different  issuej  As  it  was,  they  caused 
at  Newtown,  tho  uccd  of  his  rcstoratiou  to  be  felt.      At  the 

May  17.  j^Q^t  Court,  tho  exaspcratiou  was  at  its  height. 
One  who  considers  well  the  elements  that  were  in  conflict, 
may  not  unreasonably  believe  that  the  fate  of  New  Eng- 
land was  trembling  in  the  balance,  "  So  soon  as  the 
Court  was  set,  about  one  of  the  clock,  a  petition  was  pre- 
ferred by  those  of  Boston."  Vane  M'ould  have  read  it 
at  once.  Winthrop  interposed,  and  insisted  that  it  was 
out  of  order  till  after  the  transaction  of  the  first  business 
of  the  annual  Court,   the  election  of  Magistrates.     On 

his  life ;  and  so  wc  may  prevail  more  for  from  this  that  the  sermon  continued 

by  our  deaths  than  by  our  lives."  (Ibid.,  to  circulate  for  many  years.    On  pages 

25.)  14  and  15  of  the  "  Glass  "  is  a  passage 

A  Quaker  tract,  entitled  "  A  Glass  ascribed  to  Mr.   Wheelwright,   which 

for  the  People  of  New  England,"  writ-  however  does  not  appear  in  the  ser- 

ten  by  a  person  who  had  been  in  this  mon,  but  is  in  fact  the  conclusion  of 

country,  and  published  in  England  in  Vane's  "  Briefe  Answer"  to  Winthrop 

1G7G,  contains  a  description  of  Wheel-  (see  Hutchinson,   Collection,  &c.,    82, 

Wright's  sermon,  and  two  extracts  from  83).     The  "  Briefe  Answer"  may  have 

it   of  considerable   length.       One    (on  been  attributed  by  the  author  of  the 

page  5)  corresponds  to  page  24  of  the  "  Glass "  to  the  pen  of  Wheelwright 

manuscript  of  which  I    have  spoken  See  below,  p.  483,  note  1. 
above,  the  other  (on  pages  19-21)  to        ^  Winthrop,  I.  216. 
pages  26,  27  of  that  copy.     We  may  in- 


Chap.  XII.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  481 

Winthrop's  motion,  it  was  decided  by  a  large  majority  to 
proceed  first  to  the  election;  but  the  Governor  still  re- 
fused ;  "  whereupon  the  Deputy  told  him,  that,  if  he 
would  not  go  to  election,  he  and  the  rest  of  that  side 
would  proceed."  They  did  so ;  and  the  result  was,  that 
the  old  order  of  things  was  restored.  Winthrop  was 
chosen  Governor,  and  Dudley  Deputy-Governor ;  ^.^^^^^^ 
Endicott  was  joined  to  them  as  one  of  the  Magis-  again  chosen 
trates  for  life ;  "  Mr.  Israel  Stoughton  and  Mr. 
Hichard  Saltonstall  [son  of  Winthrop's  ancient  colleague] 
were  called  in  to  be  Assistants ;  and  Mr,  Vane,  Mr.  Cod- 
dington,  and  Mr.  Dummer,  being  all  of  that  faction,  were 
quite  left  out.  There  was  great  danger  of  a  tumult  that 
day,  for  those  of  that  side  grew  into  fierce  speeches,  and 
some  laid  hands  on  others,  but,  seeing  themselves  too 
weak,  they  grew  quiet."  ^  In  the  height  of  the  fray,  Wil- 
son climbed  a  tree  and  made  a  speech,-  the  meeting  being 
held  in  the  open  air,  on  Newtown  common. 

At  an  election  the  next  day,  Boston  returned  Vane  and 
Coddington,  with  Hough,  formerly  an  Assistant,  as  its 
Deputies.  In  the  proceedings  there  had  been  a  trifling 
informality,  of  which  the  Court  availed  itself  to  refuse 
them  seats ;  but  on  a  re-election  the  following  day,  "  the 
Court  not  finding  how  they  might  reject  them,  they  were 
admitted."  Winthrop  ran  the  gantlet  of  daily  slights 
from  his  neighbors.  When  he  went  back  to  'Boston,  no 
escort  met  him,  as  had  been  usual.  The  four  Boston  ser- 
geants, who  had  been  accustomed  to  attend  the  Governor 
to  and  from  public  worship,  "laid  down  their  halberds 
and  went  home."     "  The  country,  taking  notice  of  this, 

1  Winthrop,   I.   219,  220.  —  "They  and  it  seems  the  Boston  people  hoped 

[the    Hutchinson    party]    expected    a  that,  in  consequence  of  it,  the  freemen 

great  advantage  that  day,  because  the  from  the  country  towns  would  not  come 

remote  towns  were  allowed  to  come  in  in  to  outvote  them, 
by  proxy."    (Ibid.)     This  arrangement        ^  go  says  Hutchinson  (I.  60,  note), 

had  been  made  two  months  before  (see  on  the  authority  of  a  manuscript  Life  of 

above,  p.  443  ;  Mass.  Col.  Rec,  1. 188);  Wilson  in  his  possession. 

VOL.  I.  41 


482  HISTORY  OF  KEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

offered  to  send  in  some  from  the  neighboring  towns,  to 
carry  the  halbei'ds  by  course ;  and,  upon  that,  the  town  of 
Boston  offered  to  send  some  men,  but  not  the  sergeants ; 
but  the  Governor  chose  rather  to  make  use  of  two  of  his 
own  servants."  ^ 

Vane  did  not  bear  his  defeat  with  the  dignity  which 
his  riper  character  displayed.  Before  he  was  Governor, 
Resentment  ^^^  had  bccu  uscd  to  sit  at  pubUc  worship  in  the 
of  Vane.  Magistrates'  seat,  a  distinction  yielded  to  his  high 
birth ;  he  now.  left  it  with  Coddington,  and  repelled  the 
Governor's  invitation  to  return.  The  son  and  heir  of  the 
Earl  of  Marlborough,  a  boy  in  his  teens,  having  come 
to  Boston  "  to  see  the  country,"  the  Governor, 

June  26.  . 

whose  guest  he  had  declined  to  be  during  his 
stay,  invited  Vane  with  others  to  meet  him  at  dinner. 
Vane  "  not  only  refused  to  come,  alleging  by  letter  that 
his  conscience  withheld  him,  but  also  at  the  same  hour  he 
went  over  to  Nettle's  Island  to  dine  with  Mr.  Maverick, 
and  carried  the  Lord  Leigh  with  him."  ^ 

His  only  further  conspicuous  agency  in  the  pending 
difficulties  related  to  an  order  of  that  Court  by  which  he 
had  been  displaced,  to  the  effect  of  excluding,  till  the 
next  annual  Court,  "  all  such  persons  as  might  be  danger- 
ous to  the  commonwealth,  by  imposing  a  penalty  upon  all 
such  as  should  retain  any,  &c.  above  three  weeks,  which 
should  not  be  allowed  by  some  of  the  Magistrates."^    The 

1  Winthrop,  I.  220.  tent,   he   would  resist  it,"  -which  the 

2  Ibid.,  224,  232. —  While  here,  Gov-  Governor  thought  very  orthodox  doc- 
ernor  Vane's  young  friend  was  unbe-  trine,  and  so  "  did  openly  declare  in 
comingly  forward  in  his  loyalty.  "Being  the  Court";  and  the  conclusion  was, 
told  that  one  Ewre  had  spoken  treason  that  there  was  no  "  ollence  which  de- 
against  the  king,"  he  sent  for  a  witness  served  punishment,  seeing  it  is  lawful  to 
who  "  told  him  that  Ewre  had  said,  resist  any  authority  which  was  to  over- 
about  twelve  months  before,  that,  if  the  throw  the  lawful  authority  of  the  king's 
king  did  send  any  authority  hither  grant."  (Ibid.,  234,  235.)  Winthrop's 
against  our  patent,  he  would  be  the  legal  studies  had  not  been  fruitless, 
first  should  resist  him."  On  inquiry,  Here  was  law  worthy  of  the  sages  of 
Ewre's  language  turned  out  to   have  the  Long  Parliament. 

been,  "  that,  if  there  came  any  author-  ^  Ibid.,  224.  Comp.  Mass.  Col.  Rec., 
ity  out  of  England  contrary  to  the  pa-     I.  194. 


Chap.  XII.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  483 

obvious  purpose  of  the  measure  was  to  prevent  the  in- 
crease of  the  defeated  party  by  recruits  from  abroad.  It 
was  an  Alien  Law.  Winthrop  circulated  a  defence  of  it, 
to  which  Vane  replied,  and  the  controversy  terminated 
with  a  rejoinder  from  the  former.^  Before  the  end  of  the 
summer,  in  company  with  his  youno:  friend.  Vane 

'  r        J  J  n  '  ^  Vane's  return 

left  the  country  for  ever,  to  pass  on  to  higher  to  England. 
and  harsher  fortunes.  At  parting,  his  adherents 
made  an  ambitious  display  of  their  respect  and  regrets. 
"  Those  of  Mr.  Vane's  party  were  gathered  together,  and 
did  accompany  him  to  the  boat,  and  many  to  the  ship; 
and  the  men,  being  in  their  arms,  gave  him  divers  volleys 
of  shot,  and  five  pieces  of  ordnance,  and  he  had  five  more 
at  the  Castle ;  the  Governor  was  not  come  from  the  Court, 
but  had  left  order  with  the  captain  for  their  honorable 
dismission."  ^  Abandoned  by  their  great  patron,  the  fac- 
tion henceforward  acted  at  disadvantage. 

The  Court  had  again  deferred  the  sentence  of  Wheel- 
wright, in  the  hope  that  so  "  their  moderation  and  desire 
of  reconciliation  might  appear  to  all."  Often  things 
seemed  strongly  tending  to  an  amicable  settlement.  "  Di- 
vers writings  were  published."  The  Magistrates  issued 
a  defence  of  their  course  against  Wheelwright,  and  his 
friends  replied.  "  Mr.  Wheelwright  also  himself  set  forth 
a  small  tractate,"  and  the  ministers  retorted,  "  confuting 
the  same  by  many  strong  arguments."  But  Cotton  "replied 
to  their  answer  very  largely,  and  stated  the  differences  in 
a  very  narrow  scantling,  and  Mr.  Shepard,  preaching  at 
the  day  of  election,  brought  them  yet  nearer,  so  as,  except 

men  of  good  understanding, few  could  see  where 

the  difference  was."  ^     Matters  seemed  in  so  good  a  train 

1  These    important    papers    are   in  relied  upon.     Still  the  "  Answer "  may 

Hutchinson's  Collection  (67-100).      I  have  been  somehow  a  joint  production 

am  not  aware  that  there  is  any  earlier  of  Vane  and  Wheelwright.   (See  above, 

testimony   to  the   authorship   of  these  p.  480,  note.) 

tracts  than  that  of  Hutchinson.     (Ibid.,  2  "Winthrop,  I.  235. 

67.)    But  his  is  positive,  and,  I  think,  in  3  Ibid.,  221,  222. 
the  circumstances,  may  be  substantially 


484  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

that  it  was  hoped  a  satisfactory  accommodation  would  be 
effected  in  a  synod,  which  had  been  summoned  by  the 
ministers,  "  with  consent  of  the  Magistrates."  ^ 

It  met  in  Mr.  Shepard's  church,  at  Newtown.  "  There 
were  all  the  teaching  elders  through  the  country,  and 
Ecclesiastical  somc  ucw  comc  out  of  England,  not  yet  called  to 
Kewtown.     ^^^J  placc  hcrc,  as  Mr.  Davenport."^     The  Magis- 

Aug.  30.  tj-atgg  i^iad  seats.  The  moderators  were  Hooker, 
of  Hartford,  and  Bulkeley,  of  Concord,  from  whose  recent 
ordination  Cotton  had  absented  himself,  conceiving  him 
to  be  one  of  the  "  legal  preachers."  The  discussions, 
which  on  the  whole  appear  to  have  been  conducted  with 
much  moderation,  continued  through  three  weeks.  Eighty- 
two  opinions,  each  represented  to  have  had  some  un- 
named advocate,  were  with  great  unanimity  condemned 
as  erroneous,  even  Cotton  giving  his  scarcely  qualified 
consent  to  the  decree.  Prominent  among  them  of  course 
were  the  peculiar  tenets  of  Wheelwright  and  Mrs.  Hutch- 
inson. Some  practical  questions  of  church  discipline,  bear- 
ing upon  the  recent  proceedings,  were  next  "  debated  and 
resolved."  On  the  last  day,  the  Governor  proposed  that,  as 
"  matters  had  been  carried  on  so  peaceably,  and  concluded 
so  comfortably  in  all  love,"  a  similar  meeting  should  be 
held  the  next  year,  and  every  year ;  and  that  "  it  might  be 
agreed  what  way  was  most  agreeable  to  the  rule  of  the 
Gospel  for  the  maintenance  of  ministers."  "  But  the 
elders  did  not  like  to  deal  in  that,  lest  it  should  be  said 
that  this  assembly  was  gathered  for  their  private  advan- 
tage "  ;  and  neither  proposal  was  adopted.^ 

More  than  a  year  had  now  passed  since  the  strife  be- 
gan, and  three  months  since  Vane  returned  to  England. 
There  had  been  great  provocation  and  excitement;  but, 
down  to  this  time,  John  Greensmith,  fined  for  slander, 
was  the  only  one  of  the  disturbers  who  had  been  punished 

^  Winthrop,  I.  236.  shall  hear  much  more  of  him  further  on. 

2  Mr.  John  Davenport  had  arrived     Sec  above,  p.  369,  and  below,  p.  528. 
on  the  26th  of  the  preceding  June.    We         3  Winthrop,  I.  237-241. 


Chap.  XII]  MASSACHUSETTS.  485 

in  any  way.  "  There  was  great  hope  that  the  late  general 
assembly  would  have  some  good  effect  in  pacifying  the 
troubles  and  dissensions  about  matters  of  religion ;  but  it 
fell  out  otherwise."  Whether  it  was,  that,  with  or  without 
authority  from  Yane,  it  was  hoped  on  the  one  side  and 
feared  on  the  other  that  he  would  assert  in  England 
those  doctrines  of  allegiance  which  in  America  he  had 
urged  in  controversy  with  Winthrop,  —  or  from  some  oth- 
er cause,  —  the  dispute  was  revived  with  such  acrimony, 
that  the  General  Court,  "  findinsr  upon  consul- 
tation  that  two  so  opposite  parties  could  not  con- 
tain in  the  same  body  without  apparent  hazard  of  ruin  to 
the  whole,  agreed  to  send  away  some  of  the  principal."  ^ 

The  petition,  presented  nine  months  before  by  members 
of  the  Boston  church  in  favor  of  Wheelwright,  was  con- 
sidered as  showing  the  necessity  of  this  measure,  „      .. 

O  J  '     Proceedings 

in  the  new  ferment"  which  was  prevailini^.     It  re-  ag^'n't^'e 

*•  "-"  _  partisans  of 

ferred,  in  ambiguous  terms  of  approbation,  which  Mr?.  Hutch- 
the  Court  construed  as  of  seditious  intent,  to  the 
conduct  of  Peter  in  drawing  his  sword,  and  to  that  of 
the  Israelites  in  rescuing  Jonathan  from  Saul.  William 
Aspinwall,  a  signer  of  the  petition,  (and  its  author,  though 
this  was  not  known  till  afterwards,)  was  now  a  Deputy 
from  Boston ;  he  was  sentenced  first  to  dismission  from 
the  Court,  and  then  to  disfranchisement  and  expulsion 
from  the  territory.  John'  Coggeshall,  another  Deputy, 
who  declared  in  Court  his  approbation  of  the  petition, 
though  he  had  not  signed  it,  escaped  with  dismission  and 
disfranchisement.^  AVheelwright,  "refusing  to  leave  either 
the  place  or  his  public  exercisings,"  was  also  disfranchised, 
and  was  banished.  He  aggravated  his  oifence  by  an  appeal 
to  the  king ;  but  "  the  Court  told  him  that  an  appeal  did 
not  lie,  for,  by  the  king's  grant,  we  had  power  to  hear  and 
determine  without  any  reservation."  He  was  allowed  to 
withdraw  to  his  house,  under  an  engagement  to  surrender 

1  Winthrop,  I.  244,  245.  2  Mass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  207. 

41* 


486  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

himself  to  a  Magistrate  at  the  end  of  a  fortnight,  unless 
he  should  previously  retire  from  the  jurisdiction.  It  was 
probably  before  the  expiration  of  this  time  that  he  went 
with  a  few  adherents  to  the  Piscataqua  River,  as  will  be 
by  and  by  related, 

Mrs.  Hutchinson  was  next  sent  for,  and  was  charged, 

among  other  things,  with  railing  at  the  ministers,  and  with 

continuing:  her  semi-weekly  public  lectures,  in  de- 

Proceedings  '-'  ''    '■ 

a-aiiif^t  Mrs.  fiauce  of  determinations  of  the  recent  synod.  In 
her  defence,  she  laid  claim  to  prophetical  inspira- 
tion, and  declared  that  among  its  communications  "this 
was  one :  that  she  had  it  revealed  to  her,  that  she  should 
come  into  New  England,  and  should  here  be  persecuted, 
and  that  God  would  ruin  us  and  our  posterity  and' the 
whole  state  for  the  same."  ;  Her  trial  lasted  two  days. 
Two  reports  of  it  survive.^  They  contain  evidence  that 
her  judges  did  not  escape  the  contagion  of  her  ill-temper. 
When  some  of  the  ministers  were  to  give  their  testimony, 
she  demanded  that  they  should  be  sworn.  It  was  done, 
but  not  till  after  objection  and  delay.  \  She  may  have 
meant  the  claim  as  an  aftront,  but  that  was  not  to  be  as- 
sumed; and,  even  if  known,  it  did  not  bar  her  of  her 
right,  which,  for  every  reason  of  policy  and  dignity,  as 
well  as  of  justice,  should  have  been  promptly  allowed. 
"  So  the  Court  proceeded,  and  banished  her ;  but,  because 
it  was  winter,  they  committed  her  to  a  private  house, 
where  she  was  well  provided,  and  her  own  friends  and 
the  ciders  permitted  to  go  to  her,  but  none  else."  ~ 

1  One  was  printed  by  Hutchinson  the  same  way.  The  other  is  in  the 
(History,  II.  423),  from  "an  ancient  "Short  Story,"  &c.  (33-41).  The 
manuscript,"  of  which  he  gives  no  former,  which  has  some  breaks,  is  the 
further  account.  Of  the  proceedings  more  iull  and  the  less  unfavorable  to 
against  Wheelwright  in  March,  it  is  re-  Mrs.  Hutchinson.  But  the  reader  de- 
lated, that  "  three  or  four  of  Boston  sires  an  account  of  the  transaction  more 
(being  Mr.  AVheelwright  his  special  complete  in  some  respects  than  is  con- 
friends)  took  all  by  characters."   (Anti-  tainod  in  either. 

nomians  and  Familists,4G.)    It  is  likely  -  Winthrop,  I.  24G.    Mass.  Col.  Rec, 

that  the  report,  which  came  into  Hutch-  I.    207.— Two    Deputies,    Coddington 

inson's  hands,  of  the  arraignment  of  Mi-s.  and  Colburn,  dissented;  another,  Jen- 

Hutchinson  in  October,  was  prepared  in  nison,  declined  to  vote. 


Chap.  XII.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  487 

When  the  Court  met  agam,  after  an  adjournment  for  a 
few  days,  it  did  not  find  the  agitation  at  an  end, 

/    '  n      -,  Nov.  15. 

though  more  than  a  quarter  part  of  the  signers 
of  the  petition  in  Wheelwright's  behalf  had  recanted  and 
apologized.  John  Underhill,  the  Captain  in  the  Pequot 
war,  besides  being  cashiered,  was  now  disfranchised,  with 
six  or  seven  other  subscribers  to  the  obnoxious  paper.^ 
The  rest,  with  "  some  others,  who  had  been  chief  stirrers 
in  these  contentions,"  received  an  order  to  surrender  their 
arms,  which  "  when  they  saw  no  remedy,  they  obeyed."  ^ 
For  further  security,  "  the  powder  and  arms  of  the  coun- 
try, which  had  been  kept  at  Boston,  were  carried  to  E,ox- 
bury  and  Newtown."  ^ 

The  "  private  house,"  to  which  Mrs.  Hutchinson  had 
been  committed  for  the  winter,  was  that  of  Joseph  Welde 
of  Roxbury,  Deputy  in  the  General  Court,  and  brother 
of  the  minister.  Her  conversations  there  with  the  elders 
occasioned  such  offence,  that,  at  their  instance,  she  was 
cited  to  answer  to  a  charge  of  "gross  errors"  be-  iggg, 
fore  the  church  of  Boston,  so  lately  her  devoted  ^^"^i^^- 
partisans.  One  of  the  errors  which  were  specified,  name- 
ly, that  the  soul  is  not  naturally  immortal,  she  was  pre- 
vailed upon,  after  a  long  discussion,  to  retract  and  con- 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  208.  taken  place  a  century  before  ;  but  the 

2  Winthrop,  I.  247.  Mass.  Col.  Rec,  remembrance  of  them  had  been  re- 
I.  211.  The  preamble  to  this  order  is  vived  in  England,  at  the  period  of  which 
as  follows :  "  Whereas  the  opinions  and  I  am  writing,  by  the  spread  of  Anabap- 
revelations  of  Mr.  Wheelwright  and  tist  principles  in  that  kingdom.  The 
Mrs.  Hutchinson  have  seduced  and  led  feeling  of  the  time  may  be  gathered 
Into  dangerous  errors  many  of  the  peo-  from  a  tract,  reprinted  in  the  Ilarleian 
pie  here  in  New  England,  insomuch  as  Miscellany  (VII.  361),  with  the  title, 
there  is  just  cause  of  suspicion  that  "  A  Warning  for  England,  especially  for 
they,  as  others  in  Germany,  in  former  London,  in  the  Famous  History  of  the 
times,  may,  upon  some  revelation,  make  Frantic  Anabaptists,  their  "Wild  Preach- 
some  sudden  irruption  upon  those  that  ings  and  Practices,  in  Germany.  Print- 
differ  from  them  in  judgment,  therefore  ed  in  the  Year  1G42,  4to,  containing 
it  is  ordered,"  &c.  —  For  an  account  of  twenty-eight  Pages." 

the   transactions  "in   Germany,"   here         ^  "Winthrop,  I.  251.    Mass.  Col.  Rec, 
alluded   to,   see  Motley,  "Rise  of  the     I.  209. 
Dutch  Republic,"  I.  79,  80.     They  had 


488  HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

demn  ;  but,  as  she  persisted  in  the  others,  the  church 
"  agreed  she  should  be  admonished."  The  vote  to  that 
effect  would  have  been  unanimous,  but  for  the  dissent  of 
her  two  sons,  who,  for  their  contumacy,  "  were  admon- 
ished also."  The  meeting  was  opened  about  noon,  after 
the  weekly  Thursday  lecture,  which  had  taken  place  an 
hour  earlier  than  usual.  It  "  continued  till  eight  at  night, 
and  all  did  acknowledge  the  special  presence  of  God's 
spirit  therein."^  Several  of  her  friends,  however,  were 
absent,  on  the  search  for  another  home. 

This  was  simply  an  ecclesiastical  proceeding.  On  the 
part  of  the  government  there  was  still  a  desire  to  be 
lenient,  and  at  all  events  to  avoid  provoking  a 
reaction  by  unnecessary  offence ;  and  Mrs.  Hutch- 
inson was  "  licensed  by  the  Court,  in  regard  she  had  given 
hope  of  her  repentance,  to  be  at  Mr.  Cotton's  house  [in 
Boston],  that  both  he  and  Mr.  Davenport  might  have  the 
more  opportunity  to  deal  with  her."  The  result  was,  that 
"  she  made  a  retractation  of  near  all "  the  obnoxious  opin- 
ions imputed  to  her,  and  "declared  that  it  was  just  with 
God  to  leave  her  to  herself  as  he  had  done,  for  her  slight- 
ing his  ordinances,  both  magistracy  and  ministry."  But 
she  marred  all  by  insisting  that  the  doctrines  attributed 
to  her  were  partly  such  as  she  had  never  maintained. 
This  raised  a  question  of  veracity,  which  was  decided 
against  her ;  and  "  the  church  with  one  consent  cast  her 
out,"  or  excommunicated  her,  for  having  "impud{^ntly 
persisted  "  in  untruth.  Cotton  acquiesced  in  the  verdict. 
Her  unhappy  deportment  on  this  occasion  dissipated  what 
was  left  of  her  party.  "  IMany  poor  souls,  who  had  been 
seduced  by  her,  by  what  they  heard  and  saw  that  day 
were  through  the  grace  of  God  brought  off  quite  from 
her  errors,  and  settled  again  in  the  truth."  "  The  sen- 
tence was  denounced  by  the  pastor  [Wilson],  matters 
of  manners  belonging   properly   to   his   place."      Cotton, 

1    Wlntlirop,  I.  255. 


JIarcli  28. 


Chap.  XIL]  MASSACHUSETTS.  489 

it  is  likely,  ^70uld  be  naturally  averse  to  that  service, 
from  his  past  relations  to  the  convict.  The  approach  of 
spring  having  brought  the  time  for  carrying  into  effect 
the  order  of  the  Court,  "  after  two  or  three  days  the 
Governor  sent  a  warrant  to  Mrs.  Hutchinson  to  depart 
this  jurisdiction  before  the  last  of  the  month  "  ;  which  she 
did  accordingly,  visiting  "her  farm  at  the  Mount" 
[Braintree]  on  her  way.^ 

/It  would  be  an  unjust   representation  of  the  case  of 
Mrs.  Hutchinson  and  her  partisans  to  allege  that  they 
were  punished  for  entertaining^  opinions  distaste- 
ful  to  their  associates  on  dark  questions  of  theol-  cessity  for 
ogy./  It  is  not  enough  to  object  to  that  view,  that  [.'.'gs' against" 
it  would  not  accord  with  the  recoo^nized  habit  of  "\«^"""°- 

~  nil  an  party. 

the  time  and  place.^  '  Reasoning  on  any  obvious 
principles  of  human  nature,  —  especially  of  the  nature  of 
such  men  as  then  had  the  trust  of  the  common  weal  in 
Massachusetts,  —  it  is  impossible,  for  one  who  takes  due 
note  of  the  existing  state  of  things,  to  justify  that  in- 
terpretation of  their  proceedings.  (They  stood  between 
two  great  perils  ;  —  on  the  one  hand,  a  rupture  with  the 
most  formidable  of  the  native  tribes,  accompanied  by  the 
imminent  danger   of  its  becoming  allied  with  the  tribe 

1  Winthrop,  I.  257-259.  as  hitherto  they  do,  we  will  leave  them 

2  "  The  next  aspersion  cast  upon  us,"  to  God,  ourselves  havinrr  performed  the 
said  Winslow  in  1646,  "is,  that  we  will  duty  of  brethren  to  them."  (Ibid.,  101.) 
not  suffer  any  that  differ  from  us  never  — "If  he  [Coggeshall]  had  ke{)thisjudg- 
80  Uttle  to  reside  or  cohabit  with  us.  ment  to  himself,  so  as  the  public  peace 

To  which  I  answer,  our  prac-  had  not  been  troubled  or  endangered 

tice  witnesseth  the  contrary."  (Hypoc-  by  it,  we  should  have  left  him  to  him- 
risy  Unmasked,  99.)  And  he  specifies  self,  for  we  do  not  challenge  power  over 
some  instances  of  Presbyterians,  min-  men's  consciences."  (Antinomians  and 
isters  and  others,  living  in  Massachu-  Familists,  &c.,  28.)  —  "Your  conscience 
setts  undisturbed  and  in  good  esteem,  you  may  keep  to  yourself:  but  if  in  this 
(99,100.)  "  Against  Anabaptists,"  he  cause  you  shall  countenance  and  en- 
says,  "  it  is  true,  we  have  a  severe  law,  courage  those  that  transgress  the  law, 
but  we  never  did  or  will  execute  the  you  must  be  called  in  question  for  it; 
rigor  of  it  upon  any,  and  have  men  and  that  is  not  for  your  conscience,  but 
living  amongst  us,  nay,  some  in  our  for  your  practice."  (Ibid.,  34.  The 
churches,  of  that  judgment ;  and,  as  language  cjuoted  was  addressed  by  the 
long  as  they  carry  themselves  peacefully  Court  to  Mrs.  Hutchinson.) 


490  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

next  in  force,  and  consequently  with  all  the  tribes  of  less 
consideration  ;  —  on  the  other  hand,  the  threat  of  invasion 
from  the  parent  country,  a  danger  requiring  to  be  parried 
by  a  concentration  of  their  own  resources,  and  by  further 
accessions  of  strength  from  abroad,  if  such  could  be  ob- 
tained. It  is  extravagant  to  suppose,  that,  in  such  cir- 
cumstances, the  fathers  of  the  state  would  have  allowed 
themselves  to  be  diverted  into  a  mere  distracting  contest 
of  speculative  polemics.  Men  about  them  might  look 
upon  such  questions  as  the  real  matter  in  controversy ; 
and  possibly  the  leaders  m.ight  be  willing  to  avail  them- 
selves of  the  surrounding  excitement  for  the  aid  it  gave 
to  their  counsels  for  the  common  security.  But  it  is  as- 
suming little  for  them  to  say,  that  their  own  discernment 
was  clearer,  and  their  aim  more  practical. 

In  the  simplest  form  in  which  the  controversy  presents 
itself,  the  active  adherents  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson  had  made 
themselves  amenable  to  public  censure,  on  principles  rec- 
ognized by  all  civilized  communities.  'When  Greensmith, 
the  only  sufferer  for  more  than  a  year  after  the  beginning 
of  the  troubles,  was  fined  forty  pounds  "for  saying  that  all 
the  ministers,  except  Cotton,  Wheelwright,  and,  he  thought, 
Hooker,  did  teach  a  covenant  of  works,"  the  common  case 
of  a  slander  had  occurred.  A  charge  of  this  tenor,  if 
made  in  the  present  state  of  sentiment,  might  be  regarded 
by  many  as  untrue  and  unkind,  but  it  would  scarcely  be 
felt  as  an  intolerable  affront  and  wrong  ;  while,  to  the  men 
of  whom  we  are  speaking,  life  would  not  be  worth  hav- 
ing, if  prolonged  under  the  liability  of  being  met  at  every 
corner  with  that  accusation,  (in  the  limited  vocabulary 
of  which  the  use  is  now  forbidden  by  the  law  of  defama- 
tion and  libel,  there  is  no  word  more  injurious  than  was 
then  and   there  the  stigma  of  being  a  legalist}     At  this 

1  "  Now    the    faithful    ministers    of  Seribcs,    Pharisees,    and    opposers    of 

Christ   must  have  dung  cast  on  their  Christ   himself."     (Welde,   Preface   to 

faces,    and    be   no   better    than    legal  the   Short   Story  of  the   Rise,   Reign, 

preachers,  Baal's  j^riests,  Popish  factors,  and  Ruin  of  the  Antinomians,  &c.) 


Chap.  XII.]  MASSACHUSETTS.      .  491 

day,  a  denunciation  of  a  clergyman  as  a  drunkard  or  knave 
would  rightly  be  matter  for  public  animadversion,  as  be- 
ing prejudicial  to  his  interest  and  usefulnes's,  and  threat- 
ening to  the  public  peace.  Equally  so,  and  by  force  of 
the  same  reasons,  was  in  those  days  the  denunciation  of 
him  as  a  legal  preacher.  By  dissensions  that  expressed 
themselves  in  such  language,  some  of  the  English  congre- 
gations in  Holland  had  been  speedily  brought  to  nothing. 
Such  dissensions  might  be  reasonably  thought  a  social  dis- 
ease, which  no  immature  civil  society  could  survive.^ 

In  the  process  of  superseding  a  despotism  by  free  polit- 
ical institutions,  the  most  critical  period  is  often  that  of 
the  reconstruction  of  the  emancipated  society.  While  the 
overthrow  of  arbitrary  rule,  or  escape  from  it,  is  in  ques- 
tion, a  zeal  for  change,  and  the  utmost  liberty  and  bold- 
ness of  thought  and  action,  serve  the  movement,  and  are 
encouraged  by  its  leaders.  When  freedom  has  been  won, 
and  a  new  order  is  to  be  set  up,  the  revolutionary  spirit 
requires  to  be  suddenly  checked ;  and  it  is  naturally  the 
more  impatient  of  restraint  for  the  license  in  which  it  has 
been  indulging.  It  would  have  been  reasonable  beforehand 
to  expect  that  the  new  commonwealth  in  Massachusetts 
would  have  to  go  through  this  trial,  though  the  particular 
form  in  which  the  trial  would  present  itself  could  not  have 
been  foreseen.  ^The  disputes  introduced  by  Mrs.  Hutchin- 
son threatened  no  less  than  immediate  anarchy,  y  They  had 
already  produced  some  of  its  fruits.  They  had  weakened 
the  arm  of  government  at  a  moment  when  government 
especially  needed  to  be  strong.  An  invasion  from  the 
mother  country  was  not  unlikely,  in  the  apprehension  of 

1  "  The  wars  in  Germany  for  these  the  minds  of  the  people  were  once  set 

hundred  years  arose  from  dissensions  in  on  fire  by  reproachful  terms  of  incen- 

religion ; so  it  was  among  the  diary  spirits,  they  soon   set   to  blows, 

confederate  cantons  in  Helvetia,  which  and  had  always  a  tragical  and  bloody 

were  so  many  towns  as   nearly  com-  issue."  (Antinomians  and  Famllists,  &c., 

bined  together  as  ours  here ;  so  was  it  54.) 

also  in  the  Netherlands ; when 


492  HISTORY  OF  new  England.  [Book  l 

which  costly  military  preparations  had  been  made.  A  war 
with  the  most  powerful  of  the  native  tribes  was  flagrant, 
a  war  which  might  probably  bring  about  a  universal 
league  of  the  New-England  savages.  And  when  a  force 
was  ordered  to  take  the  field  for  the  salvation  of  the 
settlements,  the  Boston  men  refused  to  be  mustered  be- 
cause they  suspected  the  chaplain,  who  had  been  desig- 
nated by  lot  to  accompany  the  expedition,  of  being  under 
a  covenant  of  works.^ 

There  even  appears  to  have  been  imminent  danger  of  a 
direct  armed  resistance  to  authority.  Certainly  nothing 
short  of  this  was  apprehended  by  those  intrusted  with  the 
safety  of  the  state.  It  is  not  necessary  that  we  should 
yield  our  judgments  to  theirs  as  to  the  grounds  of  the 
apprehension  they  express,  when  they  say  that  the  asser- 
tion, by  Mrs.  Hutchinson  and  her  partisans,  of  the  obliga- 
tion to  follow  their  supernatural  light,  made  them  fear  a 
repetition  of  the  horrors  of  Munster,"  But  when,  in  a 
memorial  signed  by  more  than  sixty  freemen  of  Boston,  we 
find  examples  of  forcible  resistance  to  rulers  adduced  from 
Scripture,  and  spoken  of  as  not  seditious  ;  ^  and  when,  in  a 
highly  fevered  state  of  the  public  mind,  the  chief  clerical 
heresiarch  uses  in  the  pulpit  language  capable  of  being 
interpreted  as  inviting  either  to  bloodshed  or  to  the  use  of 

1  "Whereas   in   former   expeditions         ~  See  above,  p.  487,  note  2;  comp. 

tlie  town  of  Boston  was  as  forward  as  Antinomians  and  Familists,  &c.    (-10), 

any  otliers  to  sc  nd  of  tlieir  choice  mem-  and   Dudley's  remarks  at  tlie   trial  of 

bers,  and  a  greater  number  than  other  ]\Irs.  Hutchinson  (Hutchinson,  Ilistorj'-, 

towns  in  the  time  of  the  former  Gov-  II.  443,444). 

ernor,  now  in  this  last  service  they  sent         •^  "  We  have  not  drawn  the  sword, 

not  a  member,  but  one  or  two  whom  as  sometimes  Peter  did,  rashly,  neither 

they  cared  not  to  be  rid  of,  and  but  a  have  we  rescued  our  innocent  brother, 

few  others,  and  those  of  the  most  refuse  as  the  Israelites  did  Jonathan,  and  yet 

sort,  and  that  in  such  a  careless  man-  they   did    not    seditiously."       (Boston 

ner  as  gave  great  discouragement  to  the  Petition,    in    Antinomians   and    Fami- 

scrvice."    (Antinomians  and  Familists,  lists,   &c.,    22.)     "  In   pretending  Iheir 

&c.,  25.)     "The  same  difTercnce  hath  moderation,  they  put  arguments  in  the 

been  observed  in  town  lots,  rates,  and  people's  mouths  to  invite  them  to  vio- 

in  neiglibor  meetings,  and  almost  in  all  lence."     (Antinomians   and   P'amilists, 

affairs."    (Ibid.)  &c.,  29  ) 


Chap.  XII.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  493 

spiritual  weapons,  according  to  the  temper  brought  by 
hearer  or  reader  to  the  interpretation  of  his  words ;  ^ 
and  when  presently,  at  the  principal  popular  meeting, 
the  parties  come  together  so  inflamed  that  "  some  lay 
hands  on  others,"  —  we  are  fain  to  own  that  moderate 
governments  have  often  been  moved  to  adopt  far  more 
vigorous  measures  of  self-protection  by  no  plainer  symp- 
toms of  danger.  Wc  are  prepared  to  rest  on  what  the 
mild  and  reasonable  AVinthrop,  at  the  close  of  the  busi- 
ness, announced  as  "  a  ground  for  his  judgment ;  and 
that  was,  for  that  he  saw,  that  those  brethren,  &c.  were 
so  divided  from  the  rest  of  the  country  in  their  judgment 
and  practice,  as  it  could  not  stand  with  the  public  peace 
that  they  should  continue  amongst  us.  So,  by  the  exam- 
ple of  Lot  in  Abraham's  family,  and  after  Hagar  and  Ish- 
mael,  he  saw  that  they  must  be  sent  away."  ^ 

But  a  wider  view  should  be  taken  of  the  subject.  In 
order  to  do  it  justice,  we  must  recur  to  such  consid- 
erations as  were  formerly  presented  respecting  the  po- 
litical position  of  the  Colony,  and  the  designs  of  the 
leading  men  among  its  founders.  The  reader  has  been 
reminded,  that,  when  Winthrop  and  his  associates  lield 
their  meeting,  so  pregnant  with  events,  at  the  English 
Cambridge,  the  Parliament  which  the  infatuated  king 
had  proclaimed  to  be  perhaps  his  last  had  been  dissolved, 
and  Laud,  as  Bishop  of  London  and  virtually  primate, 
had  had  three  years'  time  to  develop  his  odious  policy. 
Despotism,  ecclesiastical  and  civil,  seemed  destined  to 
carry  the  day  in  England.  Some  wise  and  religious  Eng- 
lishmen proposed  to  save  the  treasure  they  had  no  mind  to 
part  with,  by  abandoning  what  seemed  to  them  a  sinking 
ship.  To  all  the  sharers  in  the  enterprise  —  peculiarly  to 
some  of  them  —  expatriation  was  a  heavy  ransom  to  pay 
for  the  rights  of  their  minds  and  souls.     They  easily  con- 

1   See  above,  p.  479.  —  "The  angels  sound  of  rattling  drums."      (Johnson, 

of  the  churches, sounding  forth  Wonder- Working  Providence,  &c.,  96.) 

their  silver  trumpets,  heard  the  jarring         2  Winthrop,  I.  250. 

VOL.  I.  42 


494  msTORY  OF  new  England.  [Book  l 

eluded  that  the  purehase  was  fully  worth  the  price ;  but 
certainly  they  had  no  intention  to  pay  so  great  a  price 
for  nothing,  or  to  encounter  the  tremendous  hardships  of 
a  wild  continent,  to  be  no  more  free,  after  all,  than  if  they 
had  remained  at  home.  It  is  not  to  be  imagined,  that  the 
Massachusetts  founders  ever  lost  sight  of  the  persecutors 
from  whom  they  had  fled,  or  ceased  to  fear  a  renewal  of  the 
oppressions  from  which  for  the  present  they  were  relieved. 
Partially  protected,  as  yet,  by  distance  and  obscurity,  they 
never  forgot,  that,  as  hereafter  they  should  emerge  into 
consequence  and  notice,  it  would  be  necessary  for  them  to 
compensate  the  immunities  of  insignificance  by  the  secu- 
rity of  power. 

The  heroic  pioneers  hoped  soon  to  have  their  tasks 
lightened,  and  their  wisdom  vindicated  and  rewarded,  by 
a  large  increase  of  numbers.  If  they  could  make  the 
experiment  seem  promising  in  the  eyes  of  those  whom 
they  had  left  behind,  feeling  the  same  wants  and  the  same 
longings  as  themselves,  its  later  steps  would  be  facilitated, 
and  its  ultimate  success  made  probable.  In  the  circum- 
stances, it  would  have  been  no  extravagant  hope  of 
theirs,  that  whatever  in  England  was  most  worth  saving 
from  a  social  wreck  would  before  long  be  transferred  to 
American  soil,  —  that  a  new  England  would  more  than 
revive  on  another  continent  the  jjlories  of  the  doomed  and 


&' 


dying  empire.  The  first  steps  of  the  experiment  had  been 
on  the  whole  not  discouraging.  Among  those  expected 
to  engnge  in  it,  if  things  went  on  in  England  in  the  an- 
ticipated way,  was  a  full  representation  of  that  class  to 
which,  from  wealth  and  hereditary  position  as  well  as 
from  personal  qualities,  belonged  in  England  an  eminent 
agency  in  the  conduct  of  affairs.  By  some  such  the  de- 
sign is  known  to  have  been  followed  near  to  the  point  of 
execution ;  and  it  would  probably  have  been  persevered 
in,  notwithstanding  the  denial  of  a  condition  which  was 
proposed,  had  affairs  continued  much  longer  to  appear  des- 


Chap.  XII.] 


MASSACHUSETTS. 


495 


perate  at  liome.^  Depending,  as  the  young  colony  did, 
on  the  good  word  and  active  patronage  of  its  Puritan 
friends  in  England,  and  looking  to  them  anxiously  for  an 
increase  of  numbers,  and  so  of  power,  it  could  ill  bear  to 
be  represented  to  them  as  already  rent  and  disabled  by  fac- 
tious.^  Nothing  more  intimately  concerned  its  welfare  than 


1  See  above,  p.  389,  note.  —  The 
"  Proposals,"  there  described,  afford 
striking  evidence  of  the  existence  of  a 
persuasion,  on  the  part  of  the  "  persons 
of  quality,"  that  it  would  belong  to  the 
emigrants  to  New  England  to  set  up  just 
tlie  government  they  might  themselves 
choose.  They  were  made  while  the 
question  of  Ship-Money  was  agitated ; 
and  very  probably  the  project  of  emi- 
gration which  they  implied  had  refer- 
ence to  that  question. 

•2  "  There  being,  12  month,  3,  [Feb- 
ruary 3,  1637,]  a  ship  ready  to  go  for 
England  and  many  passengers  in  it, 
Mr.  Cotton  took  occasion  to  speak  to 
them  about  the  differences,  &c.,  and 
■willed  them  to  tell  our  countrymen,  that 
all  the  strife  amongst  us  was  about  raaT- 
nifying  the  grace  of  God,  one  party 
seeking  to  advance  the  grace  of  God 
■within  us,  and  the  other  to  advance  the 
grace  of  God  towards  us  (meaning  by 
the  one  justification,  and  by  the  other 
sanctification)  ;  and  so  bade  them  tell 
them,  that,  if  there  were  any  among 
them  that  would  strive  for  grace,  they 
should  come  hither."  (Winthrop,  I. 
213.) — The  two  subjects  of  anxiety 
which  took  precedence  of  others  in 
March,  1633,  the  month  in  which  Mrs. 
Hutchinson  was  sent  away,  are  indi- 
cated in  an  order  for  a  day  of  fasting 
(Mass.  Col.  Hec,  I.  226),  "to  entreat 

the  help  of  God to  divert  any 

evil  plots  which  may  be  intended,  and 
to  prepare  the  Avay  of  friends  which  we 
hope  may  be  upon  coming  to  us."  — 
Winthrop  says  (I.  248),  —  referring 
to  the  Court  of  November,  1637,  when 
some  of  the  malecontcnts  had  been  dis- 


franchised and  others  disanned,  —  "  All 
the  proceedings  of  this  Court  against 
these  persons  were  set  down  at  large, 
with  the  reasons  and  other  observa- 
tions, and  were  sent  into  England  to 
be  published  there,  to  the  end  that 
all  our  godly  friends  might  not  be  dis- 
couraged from  coming  to  us."  The 
exposition  thus  made  I  believe  to  be 
that  which  is  contained  (pp.  21  et  seq.^ 
in  the  little  volume,  often  quoted  above, 
which  was  printed  in  London,  in  1644, 
under  the  title,  "  Antinomians  and 
Familists  condemned  by  the  Synod  of 
Elders  in  New  England,"  &c.  In  it,  a 
"  Catalogue    of    Erroneous    Opinions 

condemned  by  an  Assembly  of 

the  Churches  at  Newtown,  August  30, 
1637,"  is  followed  (I.)  by  the  treatise 
just  mentioned,  with  the  title,  "  The 
Proceedings  of  the  General  Court  hold- 
en  at  New  Town  in  the  Massachusetts 
in  New  England,  October  [sic]  2, 1637," 
and  (2.)  by  "  A  Brief  Apology  in  De- 
fence of  the  General  Proceedings  of 
the  Court,  holden  at  Boston  the  Ninth 
Day  of  the  First  Month,  1636  [March 
9,  1637J."  The  occasion  of  this  "Apol- 
ogy"—  which  (in  the  original  form, 
consisting  of  its  first  thirteen,  or  its  first 
eighteen,  pages)  was  written  before  the 
Proceedings  first  mentioned  (25,  comp. 
Winthrop,  I.  221)  —  was,  that  it  was 
"  thought  needful  to  make  public  decla- 
ration of  all  the  proceedings,  with  the  rea- 
sons and  grounds  thereof,  so  far  as  con- 
cerneth  the  clearing  of  the  justice  of  the 
Court."  (Antinomians  and  Familists, 
&c.,46.)  I  am  uncertain  whetheritisthe 
last  three  or  the  last  eight  pages  of  the 
volume,  that  constitute  the  "  additions  " 


496  HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

the  creation  within  it  of  such  a  state  of  things  as  would 
justify  a  report  in  England  suited  to  encourage  a  large 
emigration  of  men  of  the  desired  character  and  means. 

It  might  not  he  safe  to  say,  that  an  absolute  political 
independence  of  England  was  distinctly  intended  in  the 
scheme  of  which  the  conveyance  of  the  Massachusetts 
charter  across  the  water  was  a  part.  Thinking  men 
and  competent  statesmen  as  the  leading  founders  were, 
they  could  not  fail  to  see  that  the  fulfilment  of  such  a 
vision  must  be  left  to  the  chances  of  the  future,  or  rather, 
as  they  would  more  truly  have  said,  to  the  arbitration  of 
a  gracious  and  almighty  Providence.  But,  unless  cir- 
cumstances at  home  should  change,  they  could  not  but 
regard  this  consummation  as  possible,  and  as  one  ear- 
nestly to  be  desired,  and  with  all  perseverance  and  skil- 
ful treatment  of  events  to  be  watched  and  striven  for. 
The  charter  was  valuable  to  them  for  two  things.  It 
gave  them  a  claim  (of  no  great  practical  value,  perhaps,  as 
matters  stood)  to  English  protection  against  the  hostility 
of  European  powers,  —  the  French,  Dutch,  and  Spanish 
sovereigns  of  their  neighbors  on  the  north  and  the  south ; 
—  and  to  a  considerable  extent  it  tied  the  king's  mischief- 
making  hands  in  respect  to  interference  with  them,  while 
they  were  using  means  to  consolidate  and  develop  their 
order  and  their  power,  and  obtain  the  validity  of  pre- 
scription for  those  interpretations  of  the  instrument 
which  sorted  with  their  large  and  long-sighted  purpose. 

which,  in  liis  Address  "  to  the  Reader,"  signed  with  Weldc's  initials,  while  the 

the  editor  (Thomas  Weldc,  then  in  Eng-  other,  entitled  "  Antinomians  and  Fam- 

land)  says  that,  "in  a  strait  of  time,  not  ilists,"  &c.,  is  without  this  introductory 

having  had  many  hours,"  ho  made  "  to  matter.      Differing,   with  great  reluc- 

the  conclusion  of  the  book."    The  Prof-  tance,  from  Winthrop's  learned  editor, 

ace  and  conclusion  aj)pcar  to  have  been  I  ascribe  the  "Proceedings,"  as  well  as 

written  while  the  press  waited.  Two  cdi-  the  "  Apology,"  to  "Winthrop's  hand.  — 

tions  were  printed,  from  the  same  types,  The  "  Proceedings"  were  written  while 

except   that   they    had    different   title-  Mrs.    Hutchinson  was  "  confined  in   a 

pages,  and  that  one  of  them,  entitled  the  private  house"  (-13),  in  the  winter  of 

"  Short  Story,"  &c.,  had  the  Preface,  and  1037  -8. 
the   short   Address    "  to   the    Header " 


CiiAP.  XII.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  497 

It  was  a  great  task  of  statesmanship  to  play  hopefully 
this  game  of  prospective  independence  of  England.  It 
Avas  a  policy  only  to  be  carried  out  by  much  address,  and 
a  dexterous  use  of  events,  as  well  as  much  constancy  and 
courage.  All  care  was  to  be  taken,  from  the  beginning, 
that  the  government  of  the  parent  country  should  acquire 
no  control  over  the  government  of  the  plantation,  and  no 
foothold  within  it.  At  the  same  time,  internal  administra- 
tion was  to  be  so  conducted  as  to  strengthen  the  young 
community  by  the  energy  of  an  harmonious  and  zealous 
public  spirit,  as  well  as  by  the  abundance  of  its  material 
resources.  A  healthy  consolidation  of  the  social  system 
would  be  obstructed  by  the  disputes  of  enthusiastic  the- 
orists. It  was  only  to  be  effected  through  such  fellow- 
feeling  and  joint  action  as  could  hardly  sustain  the 
wear  and  tear  of  an  irritating  discussion  of  novel  opinions 
and  passionate  censure  of  influential  men.  That  there 
might  be  readiness  for  a  vigorous  advance  whenever  the 
time  for  it  should  come,  it  was  needful  that  youth  should 
be  trained  under  the  influences  of  a  resolute  authority  and 
of  a  concentrated  local  patriotism,  both  of  which  would 
be  enfeebled  by  unchecked  strife. 

Certain  it  was,  that  dissensions  within  the  Colony  had 
an  important  relation  to  the  danger  which  continued  to 
menace  it  from  enemies  beyond  its  borders.  It  required 
protectio'n  as  much  against  pretences  for  assault  on  the 
part  of  foes  in  the  parent  country,  as  from  what  would 
give  offence  to  friends,  or  subject  them  to  discouragement 
or  to  reproach.  Any  plausible  report  that  the  local  au- 
thority had  proved  incompetent,  and  that  the  settlement 
was  falling  into  the  ruin  of  anarchy,  would  have  been  but 
too  welcome  to  the  court  as  a  pretext  for  what  was  so 
repeatedly  threatene^ds'  from  the  first,  an  abrogation  of  its^ 
charter,  and  a  resumption  of  its  government  into  the  hands 
of  the  king. 

The  party  of  Winthrop,  generally  dominant  in  the  in- 

42* 


498  HISTORY   OF   NEW   ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

fant  commonwealth,  put  upon  the  charter  an  interpreta- 
tion acquiesced  in  without  dispute  by  succeeding  gen- 
erations. In  their  construction  of  that  instrument,  as 
long  as  the  Governor  and  Company  did  not  violate  its 
provisions,  they  held  the  entire,  unshared  control  of  their 
territory  and  of  its  European  inhabitants ;  in  other  words, 
they  owed  no  submission  to  England  whatever,  except 
such  as  was  comprehended  in  those  charter  provisions 
which  forbade  the  enactment  of  laws  contrary  to  the 
laws  of  the  English  realm,  and  required  the  payment  into 
the  English  exchequer  of  one  fifth  part  of  precious  met- 
als. Such  was  their  claim  and  their  right,  as  they  con- 
strued the  bargain.  No  doubt  they  expected  their  con- 
struction to  be  contested,  when  they  should  emerge  into 
importance,  should  the  English  government,  in  the  mean 
while,  not  be  reformed.  But  they  intended  not  to  yield  it 
except  to  force,  nor  to  yield  it  to  force,  if  that  was  such,  as 
they  should  have  grown  strong  enough  to  defy.  To  lose 
the  charter,  the  title-deed  to  their  lands,  was  to  lose  the 
little  property  on  this  side  of  the  water  by  which  they  had 
struggled  partially  to  compensate  their  sacrifices  on  the 
other.  Far  more ;  to  lose  their  charter,  or  to  come  under 
a  General  Governor,  was  to  be  reduced  again  under  that 
uncontrolled  despotism  of  the  king  and  his  creatures,  from 
which  at  such  cost  they  had  escaped. 

By  a  short  clause  in  an  order  passed  at  the  first  annual 
1031.      meeting  of  freemen  on  this  continent,  they  had 
May  18.    yggte^i  permanently  the  administration  of  the  cor- 
porate property  —  in  other  words,  the  ultimate  powers  of 
government  in  Massachusetts  —  in  the  hands  regarded  by 
them  as  suitable  to  carry  out  this  policy.      No   Romanist 
or  Episcopalian  was  to  possess  a  franchise  enabling  him 
.to  meddle  with  their  affairs  or  balk  their  aims  ;    nor  even 
any  other  unsympathizing   religionist,   who  might  make 
common  cause  with  prelatical  malecontents  on  the  ground 
of  a  common  hostility  to  the  dominant  ecclesiastical  svs- 


Chap.  XII.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  499 

tern,  or  whose  admission  to  citizenship  would  expose  them 
at  court  to  the  charge  of  making  offensive  distinctions  be- 
tween different  classes  of  dissentients. 

They  had  begun  immediately  to  call  themselves,  not  a 
colony,  but  a  "body  politic,"  a  "jurisdiction,"  and  pres- 
ently a  "  commonwealth  "  ;  ^  and  Henry  •  Vane,  coming 
over  in  the  sixth  year  after  the  charter,  found  this  last 
designation  already  so  established  and  current,  that  he 
constantly  uses  it,^  though  he  cannot  be  positively  said 
to  have  belonged  to  the  local  school  in  politics  whose 
doctrines  it  symbolized.  The  English  Oaths  of  Allegiance 
and  Supremacy  were  not  administered,  while  the  oath 
actually  prescribed  to  be  taken  on  admission  to  the  fran- 
chise not  only  contained  no  recognition  of  the  royal  gov- 
ernment, but  seems  to  have  been  devised  to  engage  the 
freemen  in  resistance  to  that  government,  should  occasion 
for  resistance  arise.  Its  meaning  is  further  illustrated 
by  its  having  been  prescribed  at  the  time  when  some 
movement  might  naturally  be  expected  in  the  nature  of 
that  Order  in  Council,  —  requiring  the  charter  to  be  sent 
back,  —  which  actually  arrived  two  months  afterwards.^ 
It  has  been  related  how  that  Order,  and  the  commission 
to  the  Archbishop*  and  others  to  regulate  plantations, 
which  presently  followed,  were  received.'' 

So  appeals  to  the  king,  as  by  Morton,  by  Williams,  by 
AVheelwright,^  and  by  many  others,  w^ere  not  only  uniform- 
ly disregarded,  but  were  taken  as  additional  proof  that  the 
appellant  was  a  person  dangerous  to  the  public  w^eal,  and 
needed  rigorous  treatment. 

On  the  other  hand,  no  little  prudence  was  exercised  to 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec,  I  87,  88,  118.  Court,  to  take  trial  of  the  fidelity  of  the 

2  See  his  "  Briefe  Answer,"  in  Hutch-  people,"  &c.  (Cotton,  Bloody  Tenent 
inson's  Collection  of  Papers,  71  et  seq.  Washed  "White,  &c.,  28,  29.) 

3  W^inthrop,  I.  137.— "The  Magis-  ^  See  above,  391,  394. 

trates  and  other  members  of  the  Gen-  ^  gee   above,   p.   485.  —  "  He   hath 

eral  Court,  upon  intelligence  of  some  threatened   us    "with    an    appeal,    and 

episcopal      and     malignant     practices  urged   us  to  proceed."     (Antinomians 

against  the  country,  made  an  Order  of  and  Familists,  25,  comp.  27.) 


500  HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

avoid  unnecessarily  provoking  an  explosion  of  wrath  in 
England,  which  as  yet  there  was  not  strength  enough  to 
cope  with.  Accordingly,  when  Iloger  Williams  —  in  the 
same  argument  in  which  he  raised  questions  respecting 
their  right  to  their  lands  —  "charged  King  James  to  have 
told  a  solemn  public  lie  because  in  his  patent  he  blessed 
Gt)d  that  he  was  the  first  Christian  prince  that  had  discov- 
ered this  land,"  and  "  charged  him  and  others  with  blasphe- 
my for  calling  Europe  Christendom  or  the  Christian  world" 
and  "  personally  applied  to  King  Charles  three  places  in 
the  Hevelation,  &c.,"  the  Magistrates  were  nothing  loath  to 
impose  upon  him  the  Oath  of  Allegiance,  thus  at  the  same 
time  silencing  cavil  against  themselves  at  court,  should 
the  scandal  reach  so  far,  and  disarming  him  for  the  fur- 
ther prosecution  of  these  disturbing  speculations  respect- 
ing the  sufficiency  of  chartered  rights.^  So,  when  the 
royal  ensign  was  defaced  by  Endicott,  it  is  plain  that  there 
was  a  struggle  between  the  inclination,  on  the  one  hand, 
of  some  of  the  Magistrates  to  encourage  a  superstitious 
scruple  which  would  have  the  salutary  political  effect  of 
driving  into  disuse  a  symbol  of  loyalty,  and  their  appre- 
hension, on  the  other,  of  offering  premature  offence. 

The  expulsion  of  the  Brownes  for  setting  up  Episcopal 
worship  had  taken  place  before  the  transmission  of  the 
charter,  or  the  foundation,  properly  so  considered,  of  the 
government."  It  was  a  high-handed  act  on  the  part  of 
Endicott ;  but  the  doubtful  rebuke  which  it  incurred 
showed  that  he  did  not  much  misconceive  the  purposes 
already  tai-iing  shape,  out  of  their  rudiments,  in  the  coun- 
sels of  his  masters.  Morton  was  a  rollicking  vagabond, 
whose  presence  it  was  impossible  to  endure,  were  it  only 
for  the  peril  which  he  brought  on  the  settlement  by  his 
misconduct  to  the  Indians.^  Gardiner  was  believed  to  be 
a  Romanist,  an  adulterer,  and  a  spy,  and  was  sent  home 
to  be  tried  for  bigamy.^     Philip  RatclifFe  was  here  as  a 

1  "Wiiitlirop,  I.  122,  123.  3  Ibid.,  p.  319. 

2  See  above,  p.  298.  •*  Ibid.,  p.  32D. 


Chap.  XII.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  501 

servant  of  Mr.  Cmclock,  who,  in  his  capacity  of  Governor, 
had  enjoined  the  strictest  dealing  with  that  class  of  emi- 
grants, as  being  of  doubtful  fitness  fqr  the  association  into 
which  they  were  brought.^  All  these  persons  had  made 
loud  complaints  in  England  of  their  expulsion  from  Mas- 
sachusetts ;  but  the  position  of  no  one  of  them  bore  any 
great  likeness  to  that  of  the  partisans  of  Mrs.  Hutchin- 
son. The  case  of  Roger  Williams  much  more  nearly  re- 
sembled it ;  but,  compared  with  the  disturbance  which 
followed  her  proceedings,  that  occasioned  by  Williar^s 
was  limited,  superficial,  and  transient.^  Had  it  not 
been  for  later  transactions,  which  revealed  him  in  more 
favorable  lights,  and  for  the  connection  of  his  exile  with 
the  origin  of  a  State,  his  exile,  instead  of  taking  the  place 
in  history  in  which  it  presents  itself  to  us,  might  have 
been  recorded  simply  as  the  expulsion  of  one  among  sev- 
eral eccentric  and  turbulent  persons.  His  controversy 
speedily  narrowed  down  to  a  merely  personal  dispute ;  not 
a  half-score  of  friends  followed  when  he  went  away,  nor 
were  they  of  a  character  to  show  that  he  inspired  confi- 
dence in  the  best  and  soberest  men ;  scarcely  a  larger 
number  of  persons  who  remained  behind  adhered  to  his 
peculiarities  ;  ^  and  the  returning  waters  presently  closed 
over  the  track  his  dashing  bark  had  made.  Mrs.  Hutch- 
inson's party  comprehended  several  of  the  most  important 
men  in  the  infant  commonwealth,  and  its  business  was 
conducted  with  a  determination  and  skill  well  worthy  to 
have  been  more  usefully  employed. 

The  difficult  task  which  was  upon  the  hands  of  the 
rulers  of  Massachusetts  has  been  partially  indicated.  At 
a  critical  period  of  their  prosecution  of  it,  the  disturbance 
made   by   Mrs.    Hutchinson    and    her   friends   threatened 

1  See  above,  p.  351.     Comp.  Mass.  by  him  "Little  Foxes,"  in  allusion,  I 
Col.  Ilec.,  I.  .393.  suppose,  to  Solomon's  Song,  ii.  15. 

2  The  (•hai)ter  in  whieh  Cotton  IMath-         3  u  "Phree   men  and   eight  ■women," 
er  treats  of  Williams  and  others  (Mag-  says  Winthrop  (I.  196). 

nalia,  Book  VII.  Chapter  II.)  is  entitled 


502  HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

to  disable  and  defeat  them.  The  fanatics  habitually 
assailed  the  hitherto  revered  governors  of  the  state  with 
language  of  studied  and  stinging  opprobrium.  They  re- 
fused to  do  military  duty,  when  the  savages,  already  in 
active  hostility,  might  at  any  moment  be  at  their  doors  in 
formidable  force.  They  had  excited  such  passions,  that, 
on  an  election  day,  there  was  a  demonstration  of  violence. 
"Fierce  speeches"  were  spoken,  and  "  some  laid  hands  on 
others."  These  things  would  have  been  serious  enough  at 
any  time.  But  they  occurred  at  the  moment  when  the 
numerous  emigration,  which  was  expected,  and  which  they 
would  probably  discourage,  was  greatly  needed  for  the 
reinforcement  of  the  young  colony ;  ^  when  its  legal  se- 

1  In  the  State-Paper  Oflice  in  Lon-  ing  the  state,  best   known  unto  their 

don,  among  the  papers  entitled  "  Amer-  Lordships,  that  the  Lord  Treasurer  of 

ica  and  West  Indies,"  is  a  letter  of  Lord  England  should  take  speedy  and  efiect- 

Maynard  to  the  Arehbishop  of  Canter-  ual  order  for  the  stay  of  eight  shij)s  now 

bury,  dated  March  17,  1G38.     In  it  his  on  the  river  of  Thames,  prepared  to  go 

Lordship  says:  "I  hear  daily  of  incred-  for  New  England,  and  should  likewise 

ible  numbers  of  persons  of  very  good  give  order  for  the  putting  on  land  of  all 

abilities  in  several  counties  hereabouts,  the  passengers  and  persons  therein  in- 

who  have  sold  their  lands  and  are  upon  tended  for  that  voyage";  and,  April  1, 

their  d(!parturc  into  New  England,  in-  it  was  ordered   that  the   same  course 

somuch  as  it  is  apprehended  as  an  occa-  should  be  taken  with  "  all  that  should 

sion  of  so  great  an  impoverishment  in  thereafter  be  discovered  to  be  prepared 

divers  parishes  as  it  is  feared  that  those  or  to  intend  to  go  thither."     (Journal 

inhabitants  who  remain  behind  will  not  of  the  Privy  Council.) 

be  possibly  able  to  employ  and  relieve  April  G,  1638.     "His   Majesty   and 

their  ])Oor,  and  discharge  other  duties;  the  Board,  taking  this  day  into  consid- 

besides,   it  is  conceived    that   they   do  wation  the  frcfpient  resort  to  New  Eng- 

carrv  a  great  deal  of  wealth  over  with  land  of  divers  persons  ill-afrected  to  the 

them,  and  some  of  good  understanding  religion  established   in   the   Church  of 

do  doubt  that  they  do  now  carry  over  England  and  to  the  good  and  i)eaceable 

so  much  corn  as  that  thei-e  will  hardly  government  of  this  state,"   though  he 

enough   be   left   behind   in   this   great  had  been  "graciously  pleased,  at  this 

scarcity  to  feed  us  till  harvest time,  to  free  them  from  a  late  restraint, 

I  am  credibly  informed  that  there  are     nevertheless  his  Majesty,  —  well 

fourteen  ships  in  the  river  of  Thames  knowing  the  factious  disposition  of  the 

presently  to  go  their  voyage."     On  the  jjcople  (or  a  great  part  of  them)  in  that 

letter   is    indorsed   by    Laud :    "  Read,  plantjUion,  and  how  unfit  and  unworthy 

March  21,  1C37  [N.  S.  1038] they  are  of  any  support  or  countenance 

I  niove'l  it  the  same  day  to  the  Board."  from  hence,  in  respect  of  the  great  dis- 

Manh  30,  1C38,  it  was  ordered  by  orders  and  want  of  government  amongst 

the  Privy  Council,  "  for  reasons  import-  them,  whereof  sundry  and  great  com- 


Chap.  XII.] 


MASSACHUSETTS. 


503 


curities  were  loudly  menaced  by  a  usurping  power  in  Eng- 
land ;  and  when  the  course  of  affairs  in  that  country  was 
showing  the  vital  necessity  of  measures  of  self-protection 
on  the  part  of  the  colony,  such  as  prolonged  internal 
dissensions  would  be  sure  to  frustrate.  Between  the  time 
when  the  vessel,  which  brought  Mrs.  Hutchinson  to  Amer- 
ica, conveyed  also  the  intelligence  of  the  appointment  of  a 
commission  for  governing  the  colonies,  and  the  time  of  her 


plaints  have  been  presented  to  the 
Board  and  made  appear  to  be  true  by 
those  that,  being  well-affected  both  for 
religion  and  government,  have  suffered 
much  loss  in  their  estates  by  the  unruly 
and  factious  party,  —  did  think  fit,  and 
order,  that  Mr.  Attorney  shall  forthwith 
draw  up  a  pi'oclamation  expressing  his 
Majesty's  royal  pleasure  to  prohibit  all 
merchants,  masters  and  owners  of  ships, 
from  henceforth  to  set  forth  any  ship 
or  ships  with  passengers  for  New  Eng- 
land, till  they  have  first  obtained  special 
license  on  that  behalf  from  such  of  the 
Lords  of  his  Majesty's  most  honorable 
Privy  Council  as  are  appointed  for  the 
businesses  of  foreign  plantations  by 
special  commission."     (Ibid.) 

Four  days  after,  it  was  ordered  that 
ships  then  under  restraint  might  be 
released,  and  proceed.  (Ibid.)  The 
surveillance,  however,  continued  to  be 
strict.  The  same  day,  a  pass  was 
granted  "  to  Nathaniel  Bourne,  of  the 
parish  of  White  Chapel,  baker,  to  trav- 
el into  the  parts  of  America."  (Ibid.) 
Miy  10,  a  similar  pass  was  granted  to 
"  Thomas  Hawkins,  of  White  Chapel, 
carpenter."  And,  June  20,  William 
Pierce,  master  of  the  ship  Desire,  pre- 
sented a  petition,  showing  that  "  the 
petitioner,  with  divers  others  inhabiting 
in  New  England,  did  lately  arrive  in 
the  port  of  London  in  the  same  ship, 
being  lately  built  in  New  England," 
and  was  permitted  to  return  thither  on 
condition  of  transporting  "  no  other 
passengers  or   provisions   but   such   as 


should  be  allowed."  (Ibid.  See  also  the 
king's  "Proclamation"  of  April  30,1637, 
"  against  the  disorderly  transporting  his 
Majest}''s  subjects  to  the  plantations 
within  the  parts  of  America,"  in  Rjmer, 
Foedera,  XX.  143.) 

Cotton  Mather  says  (Magnalia,  &c., 
Book  I.  Chap.  V.  §  7),  that  among  the 
persons  thus  prevented  by  the  govern- 
ment from  emigrating  to  New  England 
were  Hazelrigg,  Hampden,  and  Crom- 
well. Hutchinson  (I.  44)  repeats  the 
statement,  and  adds  Pym  to  the  party. 
Hume  (Chap.  LII.)  singularly  speaks 
of  Hutchinson  as  having  "  put  the  fact 
beyond  controversy,"  though  Hutchin- 
son's cautious  language  was,  that  Crom- 
well and  the  rest  were  "said  to  have 
been  prevented,"  &c.  Lord  Nugent 
(Life  of  Hampden,  I.  256),  Hallara 
(Constitutional  History,  Chap.  VIII.), 
and  Chalmers  (Political  Annals,  Book 
I.  Chap.  VII.),  all  adopt  the  story.  But 
neither  Winthrop  (I.  266),  nor  any  other 
contemporary  writer  (so  far  as  I  know), 
appears  to  have  been  informed  that  any 
persons  who  had  intended  to  come  over 
were  ultimately  detained ;  and  the  con- 
trary seems  a  natural  inference  from 
the  Order  of  the  Privy  Council,  dis- 
charging the  shipmasters.  (Rushworth, 
Collections,  II.  409.)  Miss  Aikin 
(]\Iemoii's  of  the  Court  of  King  Charles 
the  First,  Chap.  XIII.)  concludes  against 
the  credibility  of  the  story.  —  At  all 
events,  "  there  came  over,  this  summer, 
twenty  ships,  and  at  least  three  thou- 
sand persons."     (Winthrop,  I.  268.) 


50-4  HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

banishment,  demands  were  twice  made  for  the  surrender  of 
the  charter.     Within  three  weeks  after  AVinthrop's  resto- 

1637.  ration  to  power  "  came  the  copy  of  a  commission, 
June  3,  fi-om  the  Commissioners  for  New  England,  to 
divers  of  the  Magistrates  here,  to  govern  all  the  people  of 
New  England  till  further  order,  &c.,  upon  this  pretence, 
that  there  was  no  lawful  authority  in  force  here,  either 
mediate  or  immediate,  from  his  Majesty."  -^  And  it  was 
at  the  very  moment  when  the  indispensableness  of  an  en- 
ergetic union  against  the  king  had  been  proved  by  those 
decrees  of  the  Star-Chamber  against  Burton  and  Bast- 
wick,  and  that  decision  of  the  twelve  judges  against 
Hampden,  which  had  placed  the  persons  and  property 
of  Englishmen  at  the  king's  mercy,  that  the  Antinomian 
malecontents  Avere  insisting  on  ajopeals  to  him  from  the 
Massachusetts  Court.^ 

It  was  in  connection  with  this  last  point,  probably,  that 
Vane's  position  was  regarded  with  such  peculiar  uneasi- 
ness by  Winthrop  and  his  friends.  They  did  not  distrust 
his  Puritan  principles  in  religion ;  but  it  may  well  be 
doubted  whether,  at  that  early  period  of  his  life  when  he 

1  See  above,  p.  391 ;  below,  p.  559  ;  setts  Bay],  did  this  day  order  that  Mr. 
Winthrop,  I.  225;  comp.  231.  —  The  Attorney-General  be  hereby  prayed 
proceedings  against  the  charter  under  and  required  to  call  for  the  said  patent, 
the  quo  warranto  (see  above,  p.  402)  and  present  the  same  to  this  Board,  or 
had  just  now  been  brought  to  a  close,  to  the  Committee  for  Foreign  Planta- 
They  had  lasted  from  Trinity  Term  of  tions."  (Journal  of  the  Privj'  Council.) 
the  eleventh  year  of  Charles  the  First  — In  the  "Board  of  Trade"  papers 
(September,  1G35)  to  Easter  Term  of  (I.  5G)  is  a  draught  of  a  proclamation 
his  thirteenth  year  (April,  1G3 7),  when  of  the  king,  dated  July  23,  acceptmg 
"  judgment  was  given  for  the  king,  that  the  surrender  of  the  Council  for  New 
the  liberties  and  franchises  of  said  cor-  England,  and  notifying  his  intention  to 
poration  should  be  seized  into  the  king's  appoint  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges  as  Gen- 
hands,  and  the  said  Cradock's  body  to  eral  Governor,  and  to  secure  the  lands 
be  taken  into  custody  for  usurping  the  to  individual  proprietors  as  distributed 
said  liberties."  (Record  in  "  Board  of  by  the  Council.  But  the  jiroclama- 
Trade"  papers,  I.  65,  in  the  State-  tion  is  not  in  Rymcr,  and  I  presume  it 
Paper  Office  ) — May  3,  1637.  "Their  never  was  issued.  See  above,  p.  402, 
Lordships,  taking  into  consideration  the  note. 

patent  granted  to  said  government  [the         ^  Antinomians    and    Familists    Con- 
Governor  and  Company  of  Massachu-  demned,  &c.,  25,  27;  Winthrop,  I.  246. 


Chap.  XII.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  505 

was  in  America,  he  had  clearly  recognized  the  relations 
of  those  principles  to  the  patriot  movement  on  either  side 
of  the  water,  and  whether  his  fellow-magistrates  had  any 
reason  whatever  to  trust  him  for  aversion  to  the  claims  of 
prerogative.  Next  to  Laud  (if  after  him),  Straiford  and 
Vane's  father  were  at  this  time  the  most  powerful  sub- 
jects in  the  realm  of  England,  the  former  highest  in  the 
king's  favor,  the  latter  in  the  queen's ;  and  when  he  who, 
of  all  the  Englishmen  that  had  been  in  New  England,  could 
most  easily  approach  the  throne,  had  just  gone  home  under 
the  vexation  of  a  defeat,  of  wdiich  he  had  not  attempted  to 
conceal  his  keen  resentment,  it  is  no  wonder  that  there  was 
thought  to  be  occasion  for  the  most  serious  alarm,  and  for 
all  the  precautions  that  were  j)ossible.-^  The  repeatedT^ 
suggestions,  in  Vane's  "  Briefe  Answer "  to  Winthrop's 
"  Declaration,"  of  a  power  in  the  king  to  control  the 
colonial  proceedings,^  with  Winthrop's  vigilant  though 
guarded  caveats  against  them,^  are  of  great  significance. 
Much  of  what  Winthrop  said  in  that  controversy  could 
not  be  better  said.  There  were  other  things  which  he, 
exposed  to  the  wrath  of  England,  was  compelled  to  sup- 
press, or  to  be  content  with  hinting,  but  which  the  histo- 
rian, who  (thanks  to  Winthrop,  more  perhaps  than  to 
any  other  man)  is  under  no  such  restraint,  should  take 
into  the  account. 

In   attempting   to  set   the   course  of  the  governoi's  of 
Massachusetts  at   this  period  in  the  right   point  Mixed  mo- 
of  view,  it  is  not  necessary  to   show  that  meas-  |,7c^^j 
ures  of  the  strong  character  required  by  such  a  ''"'^' 


lives  of  tlie 

i:toriou3 


1  Soon  after  his  return  to  England,  86,  91.  —  Clarendon  (History,  &c.,  I. 
Vane  took  office  as  Treasurer  of  the  149)  thought  that  Vane  in  early  life  was 
Rayal  Navy.  a  friend  of  prerogative.     If  Clarendon, 

2  See  Vane's  "  Briefe  Answer,"  in  correctly  or  otherwise,  believed  this,  so 
Hutchinson's  "  Collection  of  Original  might  Winthrop.  At  all  events,  in  the 
Papers,"  72,  73,  76-78,  83.  controvei-sy  between  him  and  Vane, car- 

3  See  Winthrop's  "  Reply  to  an  An-  ried  on  in  these  treatises,  there  can  be  no 
swer,"  in  Hutchinson's  Collection,    85,  question  that  such  was  Vane's  position. 

VOL.  I.  43 


506  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

crisis  ■were  pursued  without  any  alloy  of  private  passion. 
This  would  be  to  suppose  something  aside  from  the  con- 
ditions of  human  nature.  No  good  man  can  assure  him- 
self, that,  while  with  virtuous  energy  he  pursues  a  great 
public  object,  he  shall  do  it  with  uniform  prudence  in 
the  means,  and  with  all  the  gentleness  which  is  consist- 
ent with  the  demands  of  the  occasion.  It  would  in- 
deed be  a  new  thing  if,  in  such  a  pursuit,  a  statesman 
should  place  his  sole  reliance  on  the  cool  reason  of  those 
whose  help  he  needed  to  engage,  and  should  refuse  to  be 
aided  in  any  degree  by  more  questionable  impulses  which 
he  found  acting  on  the  minds  of  his  friends. 

On  the  other  hand,  supposing  the  exigency  to  have 
been  such  as  has  been  described,  it  was  certainly  dis- 
T-jjpir  posed  of  with   no  needless  or  extreme  severity, 

moderation,  'j^j^gi-e  "was  a  trial  of  strength  between  two  excited 
parties,  as  there  was  on  the  same  soil  at  the  beginning  of 
the  American  war  of  the  last  century.  The  only  possible 
issue  was,  for  one  of  those  parties  to  maintain  itself,  and 
the  other  to  be  overcome.  In  Mrs.  Hutchinson's  time, 
as  at  the  later  time  of  the  Stamp  Act,  the  patriots  disabled 
the  recusants  because  their  power  was  believed  to  be  in- 
consistent with  the  safety  of  the  state.  In  the  former 
case,  that  object  required  not  only  the  expulsion  of  Mrs. 
Hutchinson,  but  the  reclaiming  of  those  of  her  followers 
who  xemained ;  and  the  ecclesiastical  censures,  by  which 
she  continued  to  be  pursued  after  the  defeat  of  her  faction, 
may  have  been  employed  as  the  natural  expedients  for 
withdrawing  from  her  that  sympathy  which  had  been  the 
occasion  of  so  much  alarm  and  trouble.  But  there  was 
no  confiscation,  no  imprisonment  except  for  safe  keeping, 
and  no  danger  to  life  or  limb.  A  fine,  readily  remitted  on 
assurances  of  peaceable  behavior  for  the  future,  or  deg- 
radation from  the  franchise,  or  deprivation  of  the  arms 
which  were  thought  to  be  no  longer  safely  intrusted  in 
hostile  hands,  was  the  mild  punishment  of  the  less  dan- 


Chap.  XII.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  507 

gerous  offenders.  Upon  a  very  small  number,  who  were 
more  feared,  the  harsUest  infliction  was  banishment  from 
the  society  in  which  they  could  not  be  prevailed  on  to  live 
in  peace.  They  were  required  to  do  nothing  worse  than 
what  the  settlers  in  Connecticut  had  just  been  doing  of 
their  own  accord ;  and,  in  choosing  a  new  home,  they 
had  regions  close  at  hand  not  less  eligible  than  what 
they  would  relinquish.     The  number  of  persons  disarmed 

was  seventy-six.^     "  Two  of  the  sergeants  of  Boston 

were  disfranchised  and  fined  ;  William  Balston,  twenty 
pounds  ;  Edward  Hutchinson,  forty  pounds.""  Coggestiall, 
Underbill,  and  six  others  were  disfranchised.^  Wheel- 
wright, Aspinwall,  and  Mrs.  Hutchinson  were  banished.^ 
Coddington  and  ten  others,  having  "  desired  and  obtained 
license  to  remove  themselves  and  their  families  out  of  the 
jurisdiction,"  were  ordered  to  carry  their  professed  wish 
into  effect  within  seven  weeks,  or  else  "  to  appear  at  the 
next  Court,  to  abide  the  further  order  of  the  Court."  ^ 
It  may  well  be  doubted  whether  an  exasperating  civil 
commotion  was  ever  composed  at  less  cost  to  the  unsuc- 
cessful side. 

In  point  of  moderation  and  good  temper,  it  cannot  be 
maintained  that  the  malecontents  compared  favorably  with 
that  which  proved  to  be  the  predominant  party.    But  it  is 


1  Mass.   Col.    Rec,   I.   211,  212. —  (Antinomians    and    Familists,   2G.)  — 
The  order  for  disarming  took  effect  only  "  The  Court  intended  only  to  have  dis- 

upon  such  as  should  refuse  to  apologize,     franchised  him  [Aspinwall] ;  but 

(Ibid.,  212.)     And  in  due  time  (No-  his  behavior  was  so  contemptuous  and 

vember  5,  1639),  "  It  was  ordered,  that  his  speeches  so  peremptory,"  &c.   (Ibid., 

all    that    were    disarmed,     remaining  30.) — Roger  Williams,  when  in  Eng- 

amongst  us,  carrying  themselves  peace-  land,  told  Robert  Baylie,  that  W^inthrop 

ably,    shall   have   their   arms   restored  endeavored  to  prevail  on  the   Antino- 

unto  them."    (Ibid.,  278.)  mians    voluntarily    to    remove    to    the 

2  Antinomians  and  Familists,  30.  country   on    Narragansett    Bay,    as   a 

3  Mass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  207,  208.  measure  for  the  advantage  of  both  par- 

4  Ibid.,  207.  —  "He   [Wheelwright]  ties.     (Baylie,  Dissuasive  from  the  Er- 
refused  to  depart  voluntarily  from  us,  rors  of  the  Times,  63,  72.) 

which  the  Court  had  now  offered  him,  ^  Mass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  223. 
and  in  a  manner  persuaded  him  unto." 


508  HISTORY   OF   NEW  ENGLAKD.  [Book  I. 

not  necessary  to  deny  to  them  meritorious  qualities  of 
character,  in  order  to  prove  the  substantial  rectitude  of 
the  course  taken  for  their  overthrow.  The  natural  leaders 
in  an  insurrection  are  the  ablest  men,  and  sometimes  the 
most  virtuous  men,  of  those  embarked  in  it.  And  it  is 
almost  too  obvious  to  bear  to  be  repeated,  that  the  duty 
of  a  government,  supposing  it  to  have  right  on  its  side, 
is  to  secure  the  public  safety  by  putting  doM-n  the  move- 
ment, and  that  the  movement  is  most  effectually,  and 
at  the  same  time  most  mercifully,  put  down,  by  striking 
at  tffose  who  lend  to  it  its  greatest  strength.  It  is  not 
the  camp-follovvTrs  who  enlist  sympathy,  but  the  men  of 
thought  and  resolution  at  the  head  of  the  array.  The 
desire  is  natural  that  they,  rather  than  others,  should  be 
saved  from  the  adversary's  aim.  But  such  is  not  the  con- 
dition of  civil,  any  more  than  of  martial  conflict.  If  it  is 
right  and  necessary  that  opposition  be  subdued,  it  is  emi- 
nently right  to  assail  its  chief  strength.  When  extreme 
danger  threatens  a  community,  and  martial  law  is  pro- 
claimed, private  respects,  as  well  as  the  maxims  and  pro- 
cesses which  are  the  ordinary  securities  of  liberty,  yield  to 
the  overruling  emergency  of  the  time. 

It  may  further  be  freely  allowed,  without  im.pcachment 
of  the  substantial  wisdom  or  integrity  of  the  course  of 
^   .  .    ,     the  o-overnment  on  this  occasion,  that  its  expo- 

TliPir  made-  c«  '1 

quale  defence  siti on  aud  defeuco  of  its  course  sometimes  failed 

ol'tliemseivcs.  ,         .        .  -^  „  .  •  •\      ^     ^ 

to  do  it  justice.  If,  misguided  by  an  erroneous 
system  of  Scriptural  interpretation,  the  rulers  sometimes 
attempted,  with  very  imperfect  success,  to  rest  their  case 
on  the  authority  of  single  texts  in  the  Bible,  this  should 
not  deprive  them  of  the  benefit  of  the  real  justification 
which  they  had,  —  and  which  they  equally  put  forward, 
—  resting  on  the  grounds  of  political  duty  and  common 
sense.  And  if  sometimes  slender  reasons  seem  to  be  al- 
leged in  place  of  those  reasons,  of  a  weighty  and  compre- 
liensive  character,  which  in  our  judgment  must  have  de- 


Chap.  XIL]  MASSACHUSETTS.  509 

termiiied  the  action  of  the  time,  we  are  not  to  forget  that 
while  silence  respecting  some  of  the  objects  in  view  was 
essential  to  the  final  attainment  of  those  objects,  the 
necessity  for  such  reserve  also  constituted  one  of  the 
chief  embarrassments  of  their  prosecution. 

If  it  should  be  said,  that,  by  their  strenuous  proceed- 
ings, the  rulers  of  Massachusetts  impaired  the  public 
strength    which    they    aimed   to   consolidate,  the 

~  •'  Beneficial  re- 

subsequent    history    would    refute   the   stricture,  suiisoftiieir 

ni  11  •    •  1  •  I'll       course. 

bile  scarcely  lost  a  citizen  whom  it  was  desirable 
to  retain,  and  the  later  course  of  not  a  few  who  took  final 
leave  of  her  showed  that  it  was  well  for  her  quiet  and  cred- 
it that  they  had  departed.  Edward  Hutchinson,  AVheel- 
wright.  Savage,  Aspinwall,  —  almost  every  considerable 
member  of  the  discomfited  party,  —  after  making  a  suf- 
ficient experiment  of  absence  from  Massachusetts,  found 
that,  after  all,  hers  was  the  best  society  to  live  in,  and 
came  back  to  lead  a  quiet  life.  Among  the  exiles  of  this 
time,  only  four  men  of  much  importance  can  be  named, 
that  permanently  stayed  away.  These  were  Coddington, 
Clarke,  Coggeshall,  and  Easton.  When  two  scores  of 
years  passed  before  the  recurrence  of  any  serious  internal 
dissension  in  Massachusetts,  the  substantial  wisdom  of 
the  course  now  pursued  may  be  deemed  to  be  vindicated 
by  the  event.  If  the  treatment  was  harsh,  it  was  effec- 
tive. As  the  Pequot  war  prevented  a  repetition  of  In- 
dian hostilities  for  forty  years,  so  the  defeat  of  Mrs. 
Hutchinson's  party  introduced  a  long  term  of  internal 
tranquillity. 

Few  passages  in  our  early  history  are  of  more  impor- 
tance than  that  which  has  now  been  treated  of.  The 
received  accounts  of  it  have  gone  far  to  confirm  some 
unjust  impressions  of  the  character  of  the  early  New- 
England  people,  while  its  true  interpretation  illustrates 
their  position  and  designs,  in  a  way  harmonizing  them 
with  other  great  features,  better  understood,  of  that  pub- 

43* 


510  HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

lie  action  of  theirs  which  has  so  mightily  influenced  the 
destinies  of  America  and  the  world,  and  colored  the  poli- 
tics of  the  present  age.  For  this  reason  it  has  been  here 
dwelt  upon  at  such  length.  If  by  unchecked  internal 
dissension,  or  by  foreign  force  introduced  by  it,*  the  little 
colony  of  Massachusetts  had  been  broken  up  two  centu- 
ries and  a  quarter  ago,  where  would  have  been  the  Amer- 
ican devolution  of  the  last  century,  with  its  influence 
on  the  authority  of  free  principles  of  government  in  the 
Christian  world? 

It  was  after  the  troubles  introduced  by  Mrs.  Hutchin- 
son had  reached  their  height,  that  Winthrop,  as  has  been 
related,  was  restored  to  the  chief  magistracy.  While  it  is 
nakiral  to  suppose,  that,  had  he  been  continued  in  that 
office,  his  calm  wisdom  might  have  checked  them  at  an 
earlier  stao:e  and  at  less  cost,  certainly  his  admira- 

Praiseworthy  '~'  '' 

roursoof  ble  qualitics  never  shone  more  brightly  than  dur- 
ing the  period  when  he  held  subordinate  positions. 
When  Dudley  had  failed  to  have  his  policy  prevail,  he 
was  hardly  persuaded  not  to  withdraw  from  office.^  W^hen 
Ludlow  heard  of  a  proposed  popular  encroachment,  "  he 
protested  he  would  then  return  back  into  England  "  ;  ^  and 
when  he  could  not  be  Governor,  he  would  not  be  captain 
of  the  Castle.^  When  Vane  found  himself  thwarted  as  to 
a  favorite  object,  he  "thought  it  best  for  him  to  give  place 
for  a  time."  ■*  No  such  petulance  swayed  the  firmly  bal- 
anced self-respect  of  the  first  Governor.  When  deposed 
from  the  chief  office,  he  persevered  with  undiscouraged 
diligence  in  watching  over  the  public  weal  in  the  inferior 
places  in  which  it  pleased  the  people  to  employ  him ;  and 
he  never  served  them  more  industriously  or  heartily,  than 
when  deprived  of  the  highest  tokens  of  their  regard. 

On  the  defeat  of  the  Antinomian  party,  a  portion  of  its 
members,  expelled  or  voluntarily  departing,  dispersed  in 

1  Winthrop,  I.  73.  3  ]\lass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  145. 

2  Ibid.,  1\.  4  Winthrop,  I.  207. 


Chap.  XII.]  RHODE  ISLAND.  511 

different  directions,  to  the  north  and  the  south.  Several 
went  to  AVilliams's  settlement  at  Providence,  where,  not 
changing  their  mind  with  their  cHmate,  they  took  part  in 
disturbances,  to  be  recorded  hereafter.  A  more  consider- 
able number  established  themselves  together  at  a  lower 
point  on  Narragansett  Bay. 

When  Mrs.  Hutchinson  left  Boston,  it  was  her  inten- 
tion to  join  her  brother-in-law  on  the  Piscataqua.  At 
Mount  WoUaston,  however,  she  changed  her  plan,  in 
consequence  of  hearing  of  an  arrangement  of  her  hus- 
band with  some  friends  to  make  a  settlement  in  a  differ- 
ent quarter.  Before  the  final  action  of  the  government, 
Hutchinson,  Coddington,  John  Clarke,  and  others,  —  ap- 
parently satisfied  that,  if  it  should  be  left  to  their  option, 
it  would  be  best  for  them  to  remove,  —  had  been  looking 
out  for  a  suitable  habitation.  "  By  reason  of  the  suffo- 
cating heat  of  the  summer  before,"  Clarke,  with  a  party, 
first  "  went  to  the  north,  to  be  somewhat  cooler ;  but  the 
winter  following  proved  so  cold,  that  they  were  forced  in 
the  spring  to  make  towards  the  south."  They  had  in 
view  Long  Island  or  the  shore  of  Delaware  Bay,  "  having 
sought  the  Lord  for  direction";  but,  taking  Providence  in 
their  way,  they  were  induced  by  the  representations  of 
Poger  Williams  to  turn  their  attention  to  the  beautiful 
island  of  Aquetnef,  which  the  Plymouth  people, 

-*  Txr-iT  •  i         I        '    Settlement 

whom  Clarke  and  Williams,   with    two    others,  on  uie  island 
made  a  journey  to  consult,  told  them  was  beyond  °    i"^'"^^- 
the  bounds  of  the  Plymouth  patent.^     There,  ac-      jcss. 
cordingly,  nineteen  persons  associated  themselves    '^'''■'='^^- 
in  a  body   politic,^   and   chose   Coddington   to  be  their 

1  Clarke,  in  the  "  Brief  Discourse,"  follo-ws :  "  We  whose  names  are  under- 
prefixed  to  "  111  Newes  from  New  Eng-  written  do  here  solemnly,  in  the  pres- 
land."  He  had  arrived  in  Boston  in  ence  of  Jehovah,  incorporate  ourselves 
November,  1637.  He  says  that  it  was  into  a  body  politic,  and,  as  He  shall 
he  who  made  the  proposal  to  look  for  help,  will  submit  our  pereons,  lives,  and 
another  residence.  estates  unto  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the 

2  Their  engasrement  to";ether  was  as  King  of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords,  and 


612  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

"Judge,"  and  Aspinwall  to  be  Secretary.    With  Williams's 
mediation,  they  entered  into  a  treaty  with  the  native  in- 
habitants, and  bought  the  island  from  Canonicus 

Marcli  24.  , 

and  Miantonomoh  for  the  consideration  of  "forty 
fathom  of  white  beads."  ^     At  almost  the  earliest  moment 
of  deliberation,  they  found  it  necessary  to  adopt  the  sys- 
tem which  had  occasioned  them  so  much  offence  in  Mas- 
sachusetts ;  and  they  ordained  "  that  none  should 

May  13.  .,.,,.  f.  i       -i  i 

be  received  as  mhabitants  or  ireemcn,  to  build  or 

plant  upon  the  island,  but  such  as  should  be  received  in 

by  the  consent  of  the  body." "     The  place  took  at  a  later 

JG44,      time  the  name  of  "  the  Isle  of  Rhodes,  or  Rhode 

]viarch'i3.  Inland."  ^^ 

The  refugees  had  brought  thither  their  propensity  to 

faction ;  and,  before  the  year  was  ended,  they  had  new 

trouble    anions    themselves.      Mrs.    Hutchinson 

1638.  _    ^_ 

Dissensions  could  iiot  williiigly  bc  quiet,  or  be  second,  any- 
where. The  materials  for  this  portion  of  the 
history  are  defective ;  but  it  is  apparent  that  a  serious 
commotion  took  place  in  the  new  settlement,  in  the  sequel 
of  which  several  of  its  founders  were  driven  away.  "  At 
Aquiday,"  says  Winthrop,  "  the  people  grew  very  tumult- 
uous, and  put  out  Mr.  Coddington  and  the  other  three 
magistrates,  and  chose  Mr.' William  Hutchinson  only,  a 
man  of  very  mild  temper  and  weak  parts  and  wholly 
guided  by  his  wife,  who  had  been  the  beginner  of  all  the 

to  all  those  perfect  and  absolute  laws  of  ton  and  one  of  the  Hutchinsons,  were 

his,  given  us  in  his  holy  word  of  truth,  among  the  persons   who  had  been  re- 

to  be  guided  and  judged  thereby.  Exod.  quired  to  give  up  their  arms.     Several 

xxiv.  .3,4;  2  Chron.  xi.  3  ;  2  Kings  xi.  of  them  must  have  been  on  Aquetnet 

17."    (R.  I.  Col.  Rec.,  I.  52.)    Among  Island  when  Mrs.  Hutchinson  was  ex- 

the  signers  were  William  Hutchinson  communicated. 

and   his    sons    Edward    and    William,  '  The   conveyance    (for   which   see 

William     Coddington,     John     Clarke,  R.  I.  Col.  Rec,  I.  45)  bears  the  same 

John    Coggeshall,   William   Aspinwall,  date  as  the  conveyance  of  the  Provi- 

and ^Thomas  Savage,  the  last  of  whom  dence  lands  to  Williams. 

married  the  elder  Hutchinson's  daugh-  2  R.  j.  Col.  Rec,  I.  53  ;   see  above, 

ter.    Twelve  were  members  of  the  Bos-  p.  482. 

ton  church,  and  all  but  two,  Codding-  3  R.  I.  Col.  Rec,  I.  127. 


Chap.  XII.]  EHODE  ISLAND.  513 

former  troubles  in  the  country,  and   still  continued  to 
breed  disturbance."  ^ 

This  statement  supplies  a  key  for  the  interpretation  of 
the  imperfect  public  records  of  the  time.  From  them  it 
appears,  that,  before  a  year  had  passed  after  the  iggg, 
election  of  Coddington  to  be  Judge,  it  was  deter-  J^"-i^- 
mined  to  choose  three  persons  "  to  the  place  of  Eldership, 
to  assist  the  Judge  in  the  execution  of  justice  and  judg- 
ment," and  to  share  with  him  "  the  whole  care  and  charge 
of  all  the  affairs"  of  the  plantation.  Those  conspicuous 
persons,  Aspinwall  and  the  Hutchinsons,  father  and  sons, 
were  passed  over,  and  the  choice  fell  upon  Nicholas  Eas- 
ton,  John  Coggeshall,  and  William  Brenton.  At  the 
same  "  General  Meeting  of  the  Body,"  the  magistrates 
were  directed  "  to  deal  with  William  Aspinwall  concern- 
ing his  defaults."  ^     A  few  days  later,  it  was  re- 

°  •'  Jan.  24. 

solved  to  choose  two  new  officers ;  a  Constable, 
"  to  see  that  the  peace  be  kept,  and  that  there  be  no 
unlawful  meetings,  or  anything  that  may  tend   to  civil 
disturbance  practised,"  and  a  Sergeant,  "  to  inform  of  all 
breaches  of  the  laws  of  God  that  tend  to  civil  disturb- 
ances," and  "  to  keep  the  prison,  and  such  who  shall  be 
committed    unto  his  custody,   with    all    safety   and   dili- 
gence."^    Two  weeks  after  this,  Mr.  Aspinwall 
was  proceeded  against  as  "a  suspected  person,  for 
sedition  against  the  state."  ^    And  before  two  months  were 
passed,  it  was  "  thought  meet  that  an  alarum  be 
appointed  to  give  notice  to  all  who  inhabit  the 
place,  that  they  may  forthwith  repair  and  gather  together 
to  the  house  of  the  Judge  for  the  defending  of  the  island, 
or  quelling    any   insolences   that  shall   be  tumultuously 
raised  within  the  plantation."^ 

It  may  be  presumed,  that,  in  the  controversy  thus  indi- 

1  Winthrop  writes  thus  (I.  356)  un-         3  Ibid.,  65. 
der  the  date  of  May  11,  1639.  4  ibid.,  66. 

2  R.  I.  Col.  Rec,  I.  63,  64.  5  ibid.,  68. 


514  HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

cated,  a  party,  headed  by  the  Hutchinsons  and  Aspinwall, 
got  the  better  of  Coddington  and  his  friends,  and  that 
that  revolution  in  the  government  took  place,  of  which 
Winthrop  had  been  informed.  For  presently  we  read  of  a 
new  civil  compact  at  the  existing  settlement,^  and, 

April  30.  t  f.      ■,  in  ■  r      i 

at  the  same  time,  oi  the  removal  irom  it  oi  the 
Judge,  the  Elders,  and  others,  under  an  engage- 

April  28.  1  •  •  1 

ment  together  "  to  propagate  a  plantation  m  the 
midst  of  the  island  or  elsewhere."^  The  party  left  behind 
proceeded  at  once  to  choose  a  "  ruler  or  judge."  The  rec- 
ord is  defaced  in  this  part,  and  the  name  of  the  person  so 
chosen  is  illegible.  But  there  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt 
that  it  was  William  Hutchinson,  whose  signature  stands 
at  the  head  of  those  of  the  twenty-nine  persons  united 
in   the  new   organization.      Aspinwall   was  placed  on  a 

committee  raised  to  lay  out  lands.     And  it  was 

July  1.  "^ 

"  agreed  upon,  to  call  the  town  Portsmouth''  ^ 
Coddington  and  his  friends  betook  themselves   to   the 
magnificent  harbor  at  the  southern  end  of  the   island, 

and  gave  to  their  new  settlement  the  name  of 

Newport}  During  the  summer  they  had  an  ac- 
cession of  numbers,  including  forty  or  fifty  adult  males.^ 
Acknowledging  themselves  "  natural  subjects  to  their  sov- 
ereign lord.  King  Charles,  and  subject  to  his  laws,"  they 

appointed  a  committee  "  to  inform  Mr.  Vane  by 

Nov.  25.  ,  .  . 

writing  of  the  state  of  things,  and  desire  him  to 
treat  about  the  obtaining  a  patent  of  the  island  from  his 
Majesty."  ^  But  the  division  which  had  taken  place  con- 
tinued only  a  short  time.  The  last  meeting  which  is  re- 
1640.  corded  of  the  separate  jurisdiction  of  Portsmouth 
Feb.  18.  ^^,g^g  held  within  a  year  after  the  first.^  A  nego- 
tiation which  had  been  entered  into  with  a  view  to  a  re- 


1  R  I.  Col.  Rcc,  I.  70.  5  Ibid.,  92. 

2  Ibid.,  87.  6  Ibid.,  93,  94. 

3  Ibid.,  72.  7  Ibid.,  73. 

4  Ibid.,  88. 


Chap.  XII.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  515 

union  ^  having  proved  successful,  William  Hutchinson  and 
nine  of  his  confederates,  "  presenting  of  themselves 

'1^  ^  March  12. 

and  desiring  to  be  reunited  to  the  body,  were 
readily  embraced."  Others  of  the  Portsmouth  settlement, 
not  present  in  person,  were  "  received  as  freemen,  fully  to 
enjoy  the  privileges  belonging  thereto."  It  was  "  agreed 
by  the  body  united,  that,  if  there  were  any  person  found 
meet  for  the  service  of  the  same  in  either  plantation,  if 
there  were  no  just  exception  against  him,  upon  his  orderly 
presentation,  he  should  be  received  as  a  freeman  "  ;  "  that 
the  chief  Magistrate  of  the  island  should  be  called  Gov- 
ernor, and  the  next  Deputy-Governor,  and  the  rest  of  the 
Magistrates  Assistants "  ;  "  that  the  Governor  and  two 
Assistants  should  be  chosen  in  one  town,  and  the  Deputy- 
Governor  and  two  other  Assistants  in  the  other  town "  ; 
"  and  that  the  Governor  and  Assistants  should  be  invested 
with  the  offices  of  the  Justices  of  the  Peace."  ^  Codding- 
ton  was  chosen  to  be  Governor  for  a  year,  and  William 
Hutchinson  to  be  one  of  the  Assistants.  It  was  probably 
the  last  time  that  Hutchinson  ever  held  office.^ 

Mr.  Wheelwright,  on  leaving  Boston,  went,  with  thirty- 
five  companions,  to  a  river  called  the  Swamscot,  tributary 
to  the  Piscataqua,  and  on  its  banks  began  a  settlement 
which   they  called  Exeter}     They  established  a  church 

1  R.  I.  Col.  Rec,  I.  94.  get  at  the  exact  truth,  it  would  be  found 

2  Ibid.,  100,  101.  The  12th  day  of  to  be,  that  Mrs.  Hutchinson  disUked  for 
]\Iarch  had  been  fixed  upon  as  the  per-  her  husband,  not  office,  but  secondary 
manent  day  of  annual  election.     (Ibid.,  office. 

98.)  ^  The  genuineness  of  a  deed,  pur- 

3  "  Mr.  Williams  related  to  me  that  porting  to  be  a  conveyance  to  Wheel- 
Mrs.  Hutchinson,  with  whom  he  was  wright  by  the  Indians,  nine  years  be- 
familiavly  acquainted,  and  of  whom  he  fore,  of  land  including  that  on  which 
spake  much  good,  after  she  had  come  he  now  sat  down,  has  been  matter  of 
to  Rhode  Island,  and  her  husband  had  learned  controversy.  It  is  generally 
been  made  Governor  there,  she  per-  believed  to  be  a  forgery,  executed  not 
suaded  him  to  lay  down  his  office  upon  far  from  the  year  1700.  It  is  given 
the  opinion,  which  newly  she  had  taken  in  full  by  Belknap  (Histoiy,  I.,  Append, 
up,  of  the  unlawfulness  of  magistracy."  I.),  who  did  not  suspect  it.  (Ibid.,  36.) 
(Baylie,  Dissuasive  from  the  Errors  of  I  may  recur  to  it  hereafter.  In  the 
the  Time,  150.)     Perhaps,  if  we  could  mean  time,  I  refer  those  who  may  be 


516  HISTORY   OF   NEW   ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

and  a  body  politic,  committing  the  enactment  of  laws  to 
mcetino's  of  the  whole  body,  and  their  administra- 

Exeter.  ^  ♦  . 

1(39.      tion  to  a  Governor  and  two  Assistants,  to  be  chosen 

annually.    Of  the  persons  concerned  in  the  recent 

disturbances,  no  portion  proved  afterwards  more  quiet  and 

orderly  than  this.     But  its  independent  organization  lasted 

only  three  years. ^ 

Seaward  from  Wheelwright's  settlement  lay  extensive 
salt  marshes,  covered  with  a  native  grass  much  valued 
before  a  better  herbage  was  raised  in  sufficient  quantity 
upon  the  uplands.  Here,  for  the  purpose  of  asserting 
their  jurisdiction,  the  authorities  of  Massachusetts  had 
Hampton,      crcctcd  a  house,  which  subsequently  acquired  im- 

103G.      portance  in  connection  with  a  question  of  boun- 

1G38.      dary.^     To  this  place,  Mrs.  Hutchinson's  adherent, 

May  16.     ^icholas  Eastou,  first  bent  his  steps;  but,  being 

presently  warned  away,^  he  went  to  join  his  friends  on 

JG39.  Rhode  Island.  Here,  the  next  year,  Massachusetts 
May  22.  j^'j  q^^|.  j-^gj.  fowuship  of  Hamptou,'*  the  fourth 
settlement  within  the  present  territory  of  New  Hampshire, 
and  the  last  for  more  than  half  a  century.  Its  fifty  or 
sixty  inhabitants,  recognizing  their  relation  to  Massachu- 
setts, established  no  other  than  a  municipal  government. 

Others  yet  of  the  dispersed  party  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson 
betook  themselves  to  Cochecho,  on  the  Piscataqua.     The 

curious  respecting  it  to  the  able  discus-  2  Mass.   Col.   Rcc,   I.   167;    comp, 

sion    in    Savage's    Winthrop    (I.  405).  Winthrop,  I.  290. 

The  other  side  of  the  argument  is  pre-  3  "  it  Jg  ordered,  that  the  magistrates 

sented  in  the  New  Hampshire  Ilistori-  of  Ipswich  shall  have  power  to  discharge 

cal  Collections  (I.  29!)).  Mr.  Easton  and  Mr.  JoiTrey  from  build- 

1  Their    "  Combination,"    with    the  ing  at  Winnacunnet  [Hampton],   and 

names  of  the  signers,  is  in  Hazard,  I.  if  they  will  not  take  warning,  to  clear 

4G3.     It  includes  a  pledge  of  allegiance  the  place  of  them."    (Mass.  Coll.  Ilec, 

to  the  king,  expressed  in  rather  profuse  I.   231.)     Jeffrey  was,  I  suppose,   the 

terms  of  loyalty.  —  Wheelwright,  Phi-  same  person  who  was  early  in  Boston 

lemon  Pormont,  and  seven  other  men,  Bay.     (See  above,  p.  2.33.) 

of  no  special  consideration,  received  a  ^  Mass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  23G,  259.     The 

dismission   from  the  Boston  church  to  grant  of  Hampton  for  a  settlement  was 

"  the  church  at  the  falls  of  Piscataqua,"  made  by  the  General  Court,  September 

Jan.  G,  1639.  8,  1638. 


Chap.  XII]  MASSACHUSETTS.  517 

settlement  at  that  place  has  been  mentioned  as  one  of  the 
most  ancient  in  New  England.^     When  it  had  languished 
seven  or  eight  years,  the  Hiltons  sold  their  right  in  Do^er. 
it  to  some  merchants  of"  Bristol."    The  new  owners      ^''^'* 
sent  over  Thomas  Wiggin  to  look  after  their  affairs,  who 
found  only  three  houses  on  the  spot.     These  had  probably 
been  occupied  by  the  two  Hiltons  and  Thomas  Roberts. 
After  about  a  year's  residence,  AViggin  returned  to  Eng- 
land, where  he  found  that  the  patent  had  been  again  sold, 
in  his  absence,  to  Lord  Say  and  Sele,  Lord  Brooke,  and 
two  other  partners,  who  made  an  engagement  with  him  as 
their  factor.     In  that  capacity  he  came  a  second     1G33. 
time  to  America,  bringing  with  him  a  company    <^"^'-i°- 
of  about  thirty  persons  from  the  West  of  England,  a  part 
of  whom  are  said  to  have  been  of  "  some  account  for  re- 
ligion." ^     One  of  them  was  Mr.  William  Leverich,*  who, 
after  officiating  as  their  minister  about  a  year  and      1535. 
a  half,  was  obliged  to  leave  them  for  want  of  a     •'"'^• 
competent  support. 

Two  years  after  his  departure,  another  clerical  person, 
named  George  Burdet,  found  his  way  to  Cochecho. 
He  came  thither  from  Salem,  where  during  a  year 
or  two  he  had  preached  at  different  times  to  the  satisfac- 
tion of  the  people.  Whether  he  was  then  playing  a  part, 
or  whether  he  afterwards  changed  his  mind,  is  not  alto- 
gether certain ;  but  he  turned  out  at  last  to  be  a  spy  of 
Laud.  At  Cochecho,  he  immediately  became  an  agitator 
both  in  civil  and  in  church  affairs.  Addressing  himself  to 
the  anti-Puritan  interest,  he  prevailed  on  a  majority  of 
the  planters,  first  to  receive  him  as  their  minister,  and 
then  to  make  him  their  ruler,  after  deposing  AViggin. 

While  Burdet  was  in  the  enjoyment  of  this  double  au- 
thority at  Cochecho,  John  Underbill  came  to  seek  a  retreat 
there.      After  being  disarmed   and   disfranchised  in  the 

1  See  above,  pp.  205,  233.  3  Hubbard,  221. 

2  See  above,  p.  397,  note.  *  Winthrop,  I.  115. 
VOL.  I.                          44 


518  HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

sequel  of  the  Antinomian  controversy,  Underhill  had 
gone  first  to  England  for  a  short  time.  On  his  return, 
he  was  banished  from  Massachusetts  for  retracting  his 
apology  and  submission  made  the  year  before.  A  charge 
of  adultery,  brought  against  him  at  the  same  time,  was 
not  sufficiently  proved.-^  Betaking  himself  to  Cochecho,  he 
1C38.  ^^^^  followed  thither  by  a  letter  which  Winthrop, 
September.  ^^  ^^le  part  of  tlic  Gcncral  Court,  addressed  to 
Burdet  and  others,  complaining  that  they  had  received 
one  lying  under  sentence  of  banishment  from  Massachu- 
setts, and  intimating  an  intention  to  survey  and  take  pos- 
session of  all  lands  within  the  chartered  limits  of  that 
Colony."  An  offensive  answer  was  returned  by  Burdet; 
and  Winthrop  would  have  had  him  brought  to  Boston  to 
answer  for  a  contempt,  but  was  dissuaded  by  Dudley,  on 
the  ground  of  its  being  inexpedient  to  exasi^erate  him  at 
a  time  when  he  was  known  to  be  furnishing  Laud  with 
representations  to  the  prejudice  of  Massachusetts.^     Win- 

1  A  charge  of  having  used  seditious  eratc  use  of  the  creature  called  tobacco." 

language  on  his  voyage  was  "proved  (Winthrop,  I.    270.)  —  He    confessed 

to  his  face  by  a  sober,  godly  woman,"  that  his  habit  of  private  interviews  with 

who  had  come  to  America  in  the  same  the  person  implicated  with  him  in  the 

vessel,  and  whom,  for  a  while,  he  had  charge  of  adultery  "  was  ill,  because  it 

"drawn   to   his   opinions" — "Among  had  an  appearance  of  evil  in  it ;  but  his 

other  passages,  he  told  her  how  he  came  excuse  was,  that  the  woman  was  in  great 

to  his  assurance,  and  that  was  thus :  he  trouble  of  mind  and  sore  temptations, 

had  lain  under  a  spirit  of  bondage  and  and  that  he  resorted  to  her  to  comfort 

a  legal  way  five  years,  and  could  get  her,  and  that,  when  the  door  was  found 

no  assurance,  till,  at  length,  as  he  was  locked  upon  them,  they  were  in  private 

taking  a  pipe  of  tobacco,  the  Spirit  set  prayer  together ;  but  this  practice  was 

home  an  absolute  promise  of  free  grace  clearly    condemned    by    the    elders." 

with   such   assurance   and    joy,   as  he  (Ibid.,  271.) 

never  since  doubted  of  his  good  estate,  2  Ibid.,  276. 

neither  should  he,  though  he  should  fall  3  Jn  the  State-Paper  Office  ("  Amer- 

into  sin."    This  was  thought  both  levity  ica  and  AVcst  Indies")  is  a  letter  from 

and  heresy ;  and  he  did  not  mend  his  Burdet   to   Laud,   dated    "  Piscataqua, 

case  when,  "the  Lord's  day  following,  November  29,  1638."    He  writes:  "My 

he   made   a  speech    in   the  assembly,  Lord,   the  truth   is,   it  is   their  court 

showing  that,  as  the  Lord  was  pleased  [curt?]  conclusion,  long  since  decreed, 

to  convert  Paul  as  he  was  in   perse-  to  spend   their   blood   in   opposing  all 

cuting,  &c.,  so  he  might  manifest  him-  countermands  to  their  present  way  and 

self  to  him  as  he  was  taking  the  mod-  humor ;  to  which  purpose  they  use  all 


Chap.  XII.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  519 

throp  wrote  to  Hilton  at  Cocheclio,  "  intimating  how  ill  it 
would  relish,  if  they  should  advance  Captain  Underhill." 
But  this  warning  came  too  late.  "  Pascataquack  men  had 
chosen  him  their  Governor  before  the  letter  came 

October. 

to  them."  ^     He  had  probably  been  aided  in  sup- 
planting Burdet  by  some  Antinomian  allies  whom  he  had 
brought  with  him.      Relieved  from  public  station,  and, 
moreover,   being  detected  in  some  debaucheries,  Burdet 
before  long  withdrew  to  Agamenticus. 

With  Underhill,  or  more  probably  a  little  sooner,  Han- 
sard KnoUys  came  to  Cochecho.  He  had  in  England  been 
a  minister  of  the  Established  Church ;  but,  falling  under 
censure  for  adopting  Puritan  principles,  he  determined  to 
seek  his  fortune  in  America.^  After  a  few  weeks  passed, 
in  Boston,^  he  accepted  an  invitation  to  go  to  Cocliecho. 
Burdet  forbade  him  to  preach  there ;  but  on  Burdet's  de- 
parture, very  soon  after,  "the  people  called  Mr. 

T  1  •  -111  r   September. 

Knollys,  and  m  a  short  tune  he  gathered  some  of 

diligence  to  fortify  themselves."    "  The  inform  himself  of  the  state  of  the  people 

day  before  the  writing  hereof,  I  was  here  in  regard  to  allegiance ;  and  that 

credibjy   informed   that    Massachusetts  it  was  not  discipline  that  was  now  so 

Magistrates  have  from  England  received  much   aimed   at,  as  sovereignty  ;    and 

copies  of  my  first  two  letters  to  your  that  it  was  accounted  perjury  and  trea- 

Grace,  which,  themselves  say,  Mr.  Vane  son  in  our  General  Courts  to  speak  of 

procured  from  your  Grace's  chaplain,  appeals  to  the  king."     (Ibid.,  298.) 
If  this  was  without  your  Grace's  con-         i  Ibid.,  277. 

sent,  it  will  much  concern  your  Grace ;        2  Brook,  Lives  of  the  Puritans,  III. 

if  with   it,   which  I  cannot  believe,  it  491,  492. 

will  behoove  me  to  consider  of  it."  3  u  j^  being  very  poor,  was  necessi- 

About  the  same  time,  (December  13,  tatcd  to  work  daily  with  my  hoe,  for 

1638,)    Winthrop    records    (I.    281)  :  the  space  of  almost  three  weeks.     The 

"  They   [Burdet  and  Underhill]  wrote  Magistrates  were  told  by  the  ministers 

presently  into  England  against  us,  dis-  that  I  was  an  Antinomian,  and  desired 

covering  what  they  knew  of  our  com-  they  would  not  suffer  me  to  abide  in 

bination   to   resist   any   authority   that  their  patent.     But  within  the  time  lim- 

should  come  out  of  England  against  us."  ited  by  their  law  in  that  case  [see  above, 

And  again  (May  6,  1639)  :   "  One  of  p.  482],  two  strangers  coming  to  Bos- 

Pascataquack,  having  opportunity  to  go  ton  from  Piscataqua,  hearing  of  me  by 

into  ]\Ir.  Burdet  his  study,  and  finding  mere  accident,  got  me  to  go  with  them 

there  the  copy  of  his  letter  to  the  Arch-  to  that  plantation  and  preach   thoie." 

bishops,  sent  it  to  the  Governor,  which  CKnolly=,  Aocouni,  oi'  Lis  Own  Life,  as 

..CO  ^^  ii.;^  ^«v.L,L.  lUaL  He  am  delay  to  quoted  by  Backus,  in   his  History   of 

go  into  England,  because  he  would  fully  New  England,  &c.',  I.  102.) 


520  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

the  best-minded  into  a  church  body,  and  became  their 
pastor."  ^  In  the  competition  between  Churchmen  and 
Antinomians  in  that  remote  settlement,  the  latter  party 
for  the  present  had  its  way. 

There  might  have  been  a  question,  from  which  of  the 
two  Massachusetts  was  likely  to  experience  most  hostility. 

1C39.      Before  a  year  had  passed,  "  there  was  sent  to  the 

''"'^-  Governor,"  says  Winthrop,  "  the  copy  of  a  letter 
written  into  England  by  Mr.  Hansard  Knolles  of  Pascata- 
quack,  wherein  he  had  most  falsely  slandered  this  govern- 
ment, as  that  it  was  w^orse  than  the  High  Commission, 
&c.,  and  that  here  was  nothing  but  oppression,  &c.,  and 
not  so  much  as  a  face  of  religion.  The  Governor  acquaint- 
ed one  of  Pascataquack,  Mr.  Knolles's  special  friend,  with 
it.  "Whereupon  Mr.  Knolles  became  very  much  perplexed, 
and  wrote  to  the  Governor,  acknowledging  the  wrong  he 
had  done  us,  and  desired  that  his  retractation  might  be 
published."  ^     Afterwards,  having  "  desired  a  safe-conduct, 

jg4o_      he  came,  and  upon  a  lecture-day  at  Boston 

Feb.  20.  (^niost  of  the  Magistrates  and  elders  in  the  Bay 
being  there  assembled)  he  made  a  A^ry  free  and  full  con- 
fession of  his  offence,  with  much  aggravation  against  him- 
self, so  as  that  the  assembly  were  well  satisfied."  ^ 

Meantime,  Underbill  was  not  less  busy.  Presently 
after  his  accession  to  the  government  of  the  plantation  at 
Dover  (as  at  that  time  it  began  to  be  called),^  he  "wrote  a 
letter  to  a  young  gentleman  who  sojourned  in  the  house" 
of  Winthrop,  "  wherein  he  reviled  the  Governor  with  re- 
proachful terms  and  imprecations  of  vengeance  upon  them 
alL"^  This  communication,  and  at  the  same  time  a  second 
charge  of  dissolute  conduct,  having  been  laid  before  the 
church  in  Boston  (of  which  he  was  still  a  member),  they 
sent  to  him  to  come  to  that  place  and  clear  himself  He 
would  have  disregarded  the  summons  ;  but,  finding  that  his 

1  Winthrop,  I.  326.  4  ibid.,  392. 

2  Ibid.,  306,  307.  5  Ibid.,  291. 

3  Ibid.,  326. 


Chap.  XII.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  521 

friends  were  not  prepared  to  stand  by  him,  his  "  courage 
was  abated  "  ;  -^  he  "  wrote  divers  letters  to  the  Governor 
and  Deputy,  &c.,  bewailing  his  offences  and  craving  par- 
don " ;  ^  and  at  length,  coming  before  the  Boston  church, 
he  acknowledged  himself  to  be  guilty  of  adultery  and 
other  miscarriages.  He  had  hoped  that  his  abject  expres- 
sions of  penitence  would  avert  the  threatened  penalty ; 
but  the  church,  believing  his  confession,  and  distrusting 
his  remorse,  "  presently  cast  him  out,"  and  he  1540. 
returned  to  Dover,  humiliated  and  incensed.^  March  5. 

1  Winthrop,  I.  292.  2  ibid.,  306.  3  Ibid.,  326. 


44 


CHAPTEH  XIII. 

The  settlements  north  of  Massachusetts,  which  last 
engaged  our  attention,  were  more  or  less  connected  with 
the  Antinomian  dispersion.  The  principal  of  those  which 
had  been  made  further  towards  the  east  belonged  as  yet 
to  Churchmen.     David  Thompson,  who,  under  the  aus- 

1623.  pices  of  John  Mason,  attempted  a  plantation  at 
Plantation  at  |.]^g  mouth  of  thc  Piscataoua,   soon  became  dis- 

tlie  mouth  of  -^ 

thoPiscata-    couraged,   and    removed  to  an  island  in  Boston 

qua.  - 

harbor.-^  A  new  patent  having  been  solicited 
from  the  Council  for  New  England"  by  Gorges,  Mason, 
and  others,  the  enterprise  was  resumed,  and  a  party  of 

some  fifty  men  was  sent  out  to  be  employed  in 

1C30.  .  •'  11-  ^  • 

fishing,  trade,  salt-making,   and  farming,   under 
the  superintendence  of  Captain  Walter  Neal.^     He  re- 
1C33.      turned  to  England  after  about  three  years,  and, 
August.    ^|-jg  other  partners  having  withdrawn  themselves, 
the  settlement  fell  into  the  hands   of  Mason,   who   re- 
inforced it  with  a  new  supply  of  men  and  means, 
1C34.  .     .  \  .  .    . 

and  gave  it  in  charge  to  Francis  Williams.  Not- 
withstanding the  judicious  management  of  this  agent,  the 
undertaking  still  continued  to  be  unprosperous.  Mason 
made  too  free  an  outlay  for  stores,  tools,  arms,  ammu- 
nition, and  live  stock,  of  the  last  of  which  he  imported 
costly  specimens  from  Denmark.  His  death  put  a  sudden 
end  to   the  measures   on  foot  for  retrieving  his 

1C3G.  .  ,  ,  *=• 

affairs  in  the  plantation. 

1  See  cabove,  pp.  205,  233.  3  See  Lettere  of  Ambrose  Gibbons 

2  Thc  patent  was  the  one  dated  No-  and  othci>,  ;..  Fa.,.mor's  edition  of  13el- 
vember  3,  1631.     See  above,  p.  398,  knap's  New  Hampshire,  I.  42ii-4oz. 
note.   Hubbard  (21.5, 21 C)  has  preserved 

what  he  understood  to  be  a  copy  of  it. 


Chap.  XIII.]        NORTHEASTERN  SETTLEMENTS.  523 

By  his  will,  his  two  grandsons,  John  and  Robert  Tuf- 
ton,  inherited  his  American  property,  which  he  estimated 
at  ten  thousand  pounds  sterling.  In  the  hands  of  Fran- 
cis Norton,  sent  over  by  his  widow  and  executrix 

•^  .  1638. 

as  her  attorney,  it  ran  down.     Supplies  ceased 
on  the  one  hand,  and  remittances  on  the  other.      Some 
settlers  went  away,  and  those  who  remained  ceased  to  pay 
rent  for  the  houses  and  lands  they  occupied,  which  at  last 
they  came  to  look  upon  as  their  own.     From  the  disorder 
into  which  the  plantation  fell,  it  recovered  only  through 
some  voluntary  combination  of  the  inhabitants,  the  tenor 
and  date  of  which  are  alike  unknown,  no  records  of  the 
time  having  been  preserved.     The  fact  of  the  combination 
is  known  from  a  reference  to  it  in  an  arrangement,      2040. 
subsequently  made  at  an  unpropitious  moment,  for    ^^""y-^- 
the  maintenance  of  a  clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England.-^ 
The  country  east  of  the  Piscataqua  was   still  almost 
without  English  inhabitants.     After  the  capture   of  the 
factories    on    the  Penobscot  and  at  Machias  by  siowpro- 
the  French,^  there  was  probably  no  English  post  fieTent^^^" 
eastward  of  the  Plymouth  trading-house  on  the  f""''"east. 
Kennebec,  except  that    at  Pemaquid,^  an  offshoot  from 
the  fishing-station  which  had   been    established   on    the 
island   of   Monhegan    within    six    or    seven    years    after 
Smith's  exploration."*     Perhaps,  however,  some  fishermen 
may  have  collected  on  Muscongus  Bay,^  where  land  had 
been  granted  by  the  Council  for  New  England  to  Thomas 
Leverett  of  the  English  Boston,  associated  with  the  four 

1  Francis   Williams,    Ambrose   Gib-  been  speexlily  expelled  for  "  contempt 

bons,  and  eighteen  others,  "  inhabit:ints  of  authority  and  confronting  officers." 

of  the  lower  endof  Paseataquack,"  made  (See  above,  p.  327.)    Perhaps  the  epis- 

an  appropriation  of  land  for  a  glebe,  and  copal  zeal  which  ultimately  led  to  his 

money  for  building  a  church  and  par-  promotion  on  the   Piscataqua  was   too 

sonage,  to  Thomas  W^alford  and  Henry  demonstrative  at  the  earlier  period. 
Sherburne,   churchwardens,   and   their         2  See  above,  pp.  337,  338. 
successors.      Walford    was   apparently         3  Winthrop,  I.  61,  79. 
the  smith  who  had  been  found  at  ]\Ii-         ■*  See  above,  p.  205. 
shawum  by  Wiuthrop's  company,  and        ^  Williamson,  I.  267. 


524  HISTORY   OF  KEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

London  merchants  whose  partnership  had  occasioned  so 
much  trouble  to  the  New-Plymouth  contractors.^  In 
settling  the  country  between  the  Kennebec  and  the  Pis- 
cataqua,  which  was  claimed  by  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges, 
scarcely  greater  progress  had  been  made.  William  Gorges, 
Sir  Ferdinando's  nephew,  had  attempted  to  revive 
the  settlement  at  Agamenticus,  but  he  had  proba- 
bly remained  there  less  than  two  years.^  After  his  de- 
parture, the  Massachusetts  Magistrates  "  received  a  com- 

1C37.      mission  from  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges   to   govern 

June.  jj|g  province  of  New  Somersetshire,  which  is  from 
Cape  Elizabeth  to  Sagadahoc,  and  withal  to  oversee  his 
servants  and  private  affairs ;  which  was  observed  as  a 
matter  of  no  good  discretion,  but  passed  in  silence,"  for 
other  reasons  as  well  as  "  that  it  did  not  appear  what  au- 
thority he  had  to  grant  such  a  commission."  ^  Josselyn, 
ic3g.      who,  on  his  first  visit  to  America,  sailed  along 

"^"'^-  the  coast  from  Boston  to  within  less  than  thirty 
miles  of  the  Kennebec,  has  recorded,  that  the  country 
was  "no  other  than  a  mere  wilderness,  here  and  there 
by  the  sea-side  a  few  scattered  plantations,  with  as  few 
houses."'*  The  little  settlements  which  had  been  made 
ten  or  fifteen  years  before''  had  acquired  no  importance, 
and  possessed  no  orderly  organization. 

The  hope  by  which  Gorges  had  long  been  allured,  of 
being  at  the  head  of  an  energetic  and  magnificent  govern- 
ment, was  doomed  to  be  signally  frustrated.  As  affairs 
now  stood  at  home,  he  could  indulge  small  expectation 
of  immediately  realizing  his  scheme  to  be  made  General 
Governor  of  New  England.  But  his  ambition  contracted 
itself  slowly,  and  its  next  aim  was  to  establish  a  minia- 
ture sovereignty  on  his  private  estate.  To  this  end,  he 
obtained  from  the  king  a  charter,  constituting  him  Lord 

1  See  abovp,  pp.  334,  397,  note.  3  Winthrop,!.  231 ;  sec  above,  p.  402. 

2  Gorges,  Bi'iefe  Narration,  Chap.  ^  Ac-fount  of  Two  Voyages,  &o.,  20. 
XXV. ;  sec  above,  p.  205.  5  ^(.y  above,  p.  205. 


Chap.  XIIL]  NORTHEASTERN   SETTLEMENTS.  525 

Proprietary  of  the  Province  of  Maine/  with  extraordinary 
powers  of  legislation  and  government,  transmis-  icsd. 
sible,  with  the  property,  to  his  heirs  and  assigns.  rrovLe 
The  boundaries  were  the  ocean,  the  Piscataqua  °f'*'^'"«- 
and  Kennebec  rivers,  and  a  line  drawn  from  one  river  to 
the  other  at  a  hundred  and  twenty  miles'  distance  from 
their  mouths.  The  Proprietary  was  made  ruler  in  church 
and  state,  except  so  far  as  his  prerogative  was  limited  by 
the  essential  rights  of  the  crown.  He  had  the  patronage 
of  churches,  which  were  to  be  instituted  agreeably  to  the  , 
hierarchical  model.  In  concurrence  with  representatives 
of  the  freeholders,  he  might  establish  laws,  with  penalties 
extending  to  liberty,  property,  and  life.  By  his  sole  au- 
thority, he  could  erect  courts  with  civil,  ecclesiastical,  and 
admiralty  jurisdiction  ;  appoint  and  remove  judicial,  mili- 
tary, and  ministerial  officers  ;  prescribe  the  forms  of  liti- 
gation ;  and  hear  appeals.  He  could  make  war,  and  raise, 
organize,  train,  and  command  troops ;  erect  manors  and 
municipal  corporations ;  regulate  markets  and  tolls ;  des- 
ignate ports  of  entry,  and  exact  duties  on  merchandise. 
No  one  could  reside  or  trade  within  his  province,  except 
by  his  consent ;  and  all  freeholders  and  tenants  were  to 
hold  of  him  and  his  heirs  and  assigns,  as  feudal  lords  of 
the  soil. 

Here  was  a  monarchy,  near  enough  —  had  it  been  sub- 
stantial enough  —  to  blight  with  its  unwholesome  shadow 
the  bourgeoning  democracy  of  Massachusetts  Bay.     What 

1  The  instrument  is  in  Hazard,  I.  General!  Historic,  19  ;  Hazard,  I. 
442-455.  It  calls  the  territory  grant-  385);  and  thus  perhaps  it  was  that 
ed  "  the  Province  or  County  of  Maine."  Gorges's  province  obtained  its  name. 
It  was  the  same  as  that  assigned  to  I  know  of  nothing  to  confirm  the  state- 
Gorges  at  the  surrender  of  the  charter  ment  of  Sullivan  (History,  &c.,  307), — 
of  the  Plymouth  Council  in  1G35  (see  though  it  is  adopted  by  Holmes  (An- 
above,  pp.  400,  401),  and  then  named  nals  I.  254,  note  5),  —  that  "the  terri- 
New  Somersetshire,  from  Gorges's  Eng-  tory  was  called  the  Province  of  Maijne 
lish  home.     This  eastern   country  had  by  way  of  a  compliment  to  the  Queen  of 

been    commonly    called     the     JSIayne  Charles  the  First,  who owned, 

[main]    land,   in   distinction    from   the  as  her  private  estate,  a  province  then 

numerous  islands  on  its  coast,  (Smith,  called  the  Province  of  Meyne." 


526  HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGL-AND.  [Book  L 

was  wanting  to  the  completeness  of  its  dignity  was  a  suf- 
ficiency of  subjects ;  and  these  were  not  to  be  had.  Even 
if,  under  sufficiently  favorable  circumstances,  the  system  of 
polity  set  up  might  have  proved  attractive  to  the  sort  of 
men  who  are  disposed  to  seek  their  fortunes  in  distant 
wilds,  the  experiment  was  now  to  be  made  at  just  the 
time  when  cavaliers  and  their  followers  were  wanted  for 
different  business  at  home.  Gorges  flattered  himself  with 
being  "seized  of  what  he  had  travailed  for  above  forty 
years,  together  with  the  expenses  of  many  thousand 
pounds,  loaded  with  troubles  and  vexations  from  all 
jDarts."  ^  But  he  was  too  late,  though  he  lost  no  time  in 
the  institution  of  his  government.  By  an  instru- 
ment twice  executed,  —  the  second  time  in  an 
i'^^''-      amended  form,  —  he  appointed  his  son  Thomas 

March  10.  ^  ^ 

Gorges  to  be  Deputy-Governor  of  his  domain,  with 
six  persons,  residents  on  the  'spot,  for  Counsellors.  He 
accompanied  their  commission  with  detailed  instructions 
respecting  their  official  duty.  The  Counsellors,  who  were 
severally  to  fill  the  offices  of  Secretary,  Chancellor,  Field- 
Marshal,  Treasurer,  Admiral,  and  Master  of  Ordnance, 
were  jointly  to  constitute  a  Supreme  Court  of  Judicature, 
to  meet  every  month,  and  to  be  served  by  a  Registrar  and 
a  Provost-Marshal.  The  Province  was  to  be  divided  into 
counties  or  bailiwicks,  hundreds,  and  tithings.  To  form 
a  Legislature,  eight  Deputies,  "  to  be  elected  by  the  free- 
holders of  the  several  counties,"  were  to  be  associated  with 
the  Counsellors.  Each  county  was  to  have  its  court,  con- 
sisting of  a  lieutenant  and  eight  justices,  to  be  appointed 
by  the  Council.^ 

The  first  step  towards  putting  this  machinery  in  opera- 

1  Bricfe  Narration,  Book  III.  Cliap.  Laconia,  "  he  having  hitherto  paid  only 

III.  —  He  had  been  recently  put  to  un-  five   pounds."     (Journal  of  the  Privy 

pleasant  straits.    June  27,  1G38,  he  was  Council.)  —  Similar  proceedings  against 

ordered  to  pay  two  hundred  and  fifty-  him  were  had,  February  22,  March  20, 

four  pounds  to  John  Mitchell,  minister,  and  October  30,  1C39. 

and  others, "  poor  people," — arrears  due  ^  Gorges,  Bricfe  Narration,  Book  IL 

from  him  on  account  of  his  adventures  to  Chap.  III.,  IV. 


Chap.  XIIL]  NORTHEASTERN   SETTLEMENTS.  527 

tion  was  made  at  a  court  held  by  four  of  the  Counsel- 
lors.    They  took  the  oaths  of  office  and  of  alle- 

1         X  1     -r»  •  •  June  25. 

glance  to  the  Lord  Proprietary,  appointed  subor- 
dinate officers,  and  disposed  of  some  causes,  criminal  and 
civil.  The  Deputy-Governor,  arriving  soon  after,  found 
the  official  residence  at  Agamenticus  scarcely  sufficient  to 
give  him  shelter,  and  "  nothing  of  the  household  stuff 
remaining  but  an  old  pot,  a  pair  of  tongs,  and  a  couple  of 
cob-irons."  ^  George  Burdet,  formerly  the  mischief-maker 
at  Dover,^  now  a  person  of  consequence  in  the  capital  of 
Maine,  was  arrested  by  Gorges  under  a  charge  of  adul- 
tery and  other  offences.  The  demagogue,  convicted  and 
fined,  set  sail  for  England  with  threats  of  ven- 

.  *="  .  September. 

geance,  which^  on  his  arrival  there,  he  saw  ihe 
futility  of  attempting  to  execute. 

The  Province  was  divided  into  two  counties,  of  one  of 
which  Agamenticus  [now  York]  was  the  principal  settle- 
ment ;  of  the  other,  Saco.     The  annual  General  Agamenticus 
Courts  were  appointed  to  be  held  at  the  latter  '""^^'"'°- 
place,  while  the  former  was  distinguished  both  by  being  the 
residence  of  the  Deputy-Governor,  and  by  the  dignity  of 
incorporation  as  a  borough,  under  the  hand  of  the      i64i. 
Lord  Proprietary  himself    The  greatness  of  Aga-     '^p"'^*'- 
menticus  made  it  arrosrant ;  and  it  sent  a  deputa- 
tion  ot  aldermen  and  burgesses  to  the  General 
Court  at  Saco,  to  save  its  metropolitan  rights  by  a  solemn 
protest.  The  Proprietary  was  its  friend,  and  before  long  ex- 
alted it  still  more  by  a  city  charter,^  authorizing  it      1642. 
and  its  suburbs,  constituting  a  territory  of  twenty- 
one  square  miles,  to  be  governed,  under  the  name  of  Gorge- 
ana,  by  a  Mayor,  twelve  Aldermen,  a  Common  Council  of 
twenty-four  members,  and  a  Recorder,  all  to  be  annually 
chosen  by  the  citizens.     Probably  as  many  as  two  thirds 

^  AVilliamson,  I.  283.  cus  a  city  (Ibid.,  481),  he  of  course 

2  See  above,  p.  517.  meant  it  to  be  the  seat  of  a  bishop,  for 

^  The  chaj'ters  are  in  Hazard,  I.  470,  the  word  city  has  no  other  meaning  in 

480.  —  When  Gorges  made  Agamenti-  English  law. 


528  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

of  the  adult  males  were  in  places  of  authority.  The  forms 
of  proceeding  in  the  Recorder's  Court  were  to  be  copied 
from  those  of  the  British  Chancery.  This  grave  foolery 
was  acted  more  than  ten  years. 

We  pass  to  the  opposite  extremity  of  New  England, 
where,  simultaneously  with  the  settlement  at  Aquetnet, 
another  community  was  erected,  of  a  different  character 
from  any  of  those  which  have  been  mentioned  in  this  or 
the  last  chapter.  Theophilus  Eaton  has  already  been 
Tiieophiius  named  as  a  member  and  Assistant  of  the  Massa- 
Eaton.  chusetts  Compauy.^  The  son  of  a  clergyman  at 
Stony  Stratford  in  Buckinghamshire,  he  had  risen  to 
opulence  in  London,  and  had  attracted  the  notice  of  the 
government,  by  which  he  was  sent  in  a  diplomatic  ca- 
pacity to  Denmark.  He  was  a  parishioner  of  John  Dav- 
enport, minister  of  St.  Stephen's  Church,  in  Coleman 
Street,  London.  Davenport,  son  of  a  Mayor  of  Coventry, 
in  Warwickshire,  was  an  Oxford  graduate,  and  a 

John  Daven-  o 

port.  clergyman  of  so  much  eminence  as  to  have  at- 

1C34.     tractcd  the  special  notice  of  Laud,  who  mentions 
^'  ■    him  in  a  letter  to  the  king.     Driven  by  the  pro- 
ceedings of  that  prelate  to  resign  his  cure,  he  was  for 
some  time  preacher  to  an  English  congregation  at  Am- 
sterdam.    By  John  Cotton,  with  whom  he  had  kept  up 
a  correspondence,  he  was  induced  to  turn  his  thoughts 
towards  America;  and  at  Davenport's  instance  —  at  all 
events,  in  his  company  —  Eaton  came  to  New  England, 
1637.      arriving  there,  with  a  number  of  friends,  "  in  two 
juno2G.    si^ips;'  at  the  height  of  the  troubles  of  the  Anti- 
nomian  controversy  and  the  Pequot  war. 

The  habits  of  thought  of  this  fraternity  led  them  to 
carry  out  to  its  last  results  the  idea  which  had  fascinated 
so  many  thinking  persons  at  that  period,  of  finding  in 
Scripture  a  special  rule  for  everything  of  the  nature  of 
civil  as  well  as  of  ecclesiastical  order  and  administration  ; 

1  See  above,  p.  303  ;  comp.  484,  note  2. 


CiiAP.  XIII.]  NEW  HAVEN.  529 

and,  for  tlie  experiment,  they  desired  a  more  unoccupied 
field  than  was  to  be  found  at  that  late  hour  in  Massachu- 
setts.^    Having  taken  some  months  for  inquiry  and  delib- 
eration, they  in  early  spring  set  forth  by  water  to  Emigration 
Quinnipiack,  —  an  inviting  site,  on  a  commodious  ^°3^j|"'""' 
harbor  of  Lono:-Island  Sound,  thirty  miles  west  of     ic^a. 

.  ''  March  30. 

the  mouth  of  Connecticut  River.      Ihe  company 
included  two  ministers  besides  Davenport,  namely,  Samuel 
Eaton  and  Peter  Prudden. 

Their  voyage  occupied  a  fortnight.     Under  the  shelter 
of  an  oak,  they  kept  their  first  Sabbath,  listen- 

•^  April  15 

mg  to  a  sermon  from  Davenport  on  the  leading 
up  of  Jesus  into  the  wilderness  to  be  tempted.     A  few 
days  later,  "  after  fasting  and  prayer,"  they  formed  their 
political   association  by  what  they  called  a   "  plantation 
covenant,"  "  to  distinguish  it  from  a  church  cov-  plantation 
enant,  which  could  not  at  that  time  be  made,  a  '=°^«'nant. 
church  not  being  then  gathered."     In  this  compact  they 
resolved,  "  that,  as  in  matters  that  concern  the  gathering 
and  ordering  of  a  church,  so  likewise  in  all  public  offices 
which  concern  civil  order,  as  choice  of  magistrates  and 
officers,   making    and    repealing  of  laws,    dividing  allot- 
ments of  inheritance,  and  all  things  of  like  nature,"  they 
would  "be  ordered  by  the  rules  which  the  Scriptures  hold 

1  In   their  letter,   however,  to  the  frustrated  by  our  scattering  so  far ;  and 

Magistrates    (Winthrop,  I.   484),   who  such  as  were  now  gone  that  way  were 

had  strongly  urged  them  to  remain  in  as  much   in   the  eye   of  the   state   of 

the  neighborhood  of  Boston,  they  put  England  as  we   here."      (Ibid.,  2G0.) 

their  decision  on  the  ground   of  want  Eaton  had  been  to  view  Quinnipiack, 

of   satisfactory   accommodation    there,  with   others,   the    second   month   after 

Winthrop   says    (Ibid.,    259)    that    an  his  arrival  (Ibid.,    237),   and   appears 

opinion  of  "more  safety  from  danger  to  have  left  a  small  party  to  winter, 

of  a  General  Governor,  who  was  feared  perhaps   for    a    trial    of    the   climate, 

to  be  sent  this  summer,"  had  its  influ-  Stoughton  had  become  acquainted  with 

enc-e   in   swelling   the   number   of  the  Quinnipiack   in  the  Pequot  campaign 

party.     W^inthrop,  however,  hoped  that  (Letter  of  Stoughton,  in  Winthrop,  I. 

the    dispersion   would   be   useful   "for  478,  comp.  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  XXVI. 

diverting  the  thoughts   and  intentions  13),  and  his  favorable  representations 

of  such   in   England  as  intended  evil  to  the  Governor  probably  directed  the 

against    us,   whose  designs    might    be  attention  of  Eaton's  party  to  the  place. 

VOL.  I.  45 


530  HISTORY  OF  NEAV  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

forth."  ^  It  had  no  external  sanction,  and  comprehended 
no  acknowledgment  of  the  government  of  England.  The 
company  consisted  mostly  of  Londoners,  who  at  home 
had  been  engaged  in  trade.  In  proportion  to  their  num- 
ber, they  were  the  richest  of  all  the  plantations.  Like 
the  settlers  on  Narragansett  Bay,  they  had  no  other  title 

Nov  24.    to  their  lands  than  that  which  they  obtained  by 

Dec.  11.     pm-cliase  from  the  Indians.^ 

AVith  a  wiser  judgment  of  the  safe  way  of  proceeding  in 
such  affairs  than  Gorges  exercised  when  he  planned  a 
government  beforehand  for  his  j^rovince,  or  Locke  when 
he  made  a  constitution  for  those  who  might  people  South 
Carolina,  the  settlers  at  Quinnipiack  gave  themselves  a 
year  to  learn  from  experience  the  arrangements  suitable  to 
a  social  organization  for  persons  so  circumstanced.  They 
Avere  "  cast  into  several  private  meetings,  wherein  they 
that  dwelt  nearest  together  gave  their  accounts  one  to 
another  of  God's  gracious  work  upon  them,  and  prayed 
together  and  conferred  to  their  mutual  edification."  ^  By 
this  intercourse  they  matured  a  unity  of  sentiment,  and 
became  prepared  for  the  selection  of  those  whom  they 
were  to  intrust  with  office. 

In  early  summer,  "  all  the  free  planters  "  met  in  a  bam, 

"  to  consult  about  settling  civil  government  according  to 

1C39.      God."    ]Mr.  Davenport  prayed,  and  preached  from 

Juno  4.  ^Yie  text,  "  AVisdoni  hath  buildcd  her  house  ;  she 
hath  hewn  out  her  seven  pillars."  "*     He  proved  in  his 

1  New  Haven  Col.  Rec,  12.  Rec,  11.  517;  comp.  Bacon,  Hist.  Dis- 

2  Trumbull  supposed  othenvisc.  He  courses,  359)  was  written  in  1664,  when 
says  (History,  Chap.  VH.)  :  "  The  colo-  the  Colony  was  endeavoring  to  avoid  a 
nists,  both  in  Connecticut  and  New  union  with  Connecticut.  It  contains 
Haven,  were  the  patentees  of  Lord  Say  a  full  recital  of  the  early  transactions, 
and  Sele,  Lord  Brooke,  and  the  other  It  declares  the  soil  to  have  been  "  pur- 
gentlemen  interested  in  the  old  Con-  chased  of  the  Indians,  the  true  proprie- 
necticut  patent."  But  I  ])resumc  he  tors  thereof,"  and  is  entirely  silent  as  to 
was  in  this  instance,  as  ho  very  rarely  any  grant  from  English  patentees, 
was,  in  error.   I  can  find  nothing  to  au-         3  ;>J.  n,  (Jol.  llec,  15. 

thorize  his  statement.     "  New  Haven's         ^  Prov.  ix.  1. 
Case  Stated  "  (which  see  in  N.  II.  Coll. 


Chap.  XIII.]  NEW  HAVEN.  531 

discourse  the  fitness  of  designating  seven  competent  men 
to  construct  the  government  which  was  contemplated. 
After  a  solemn  exhortation  to  his  hearers  to  act 

Organization 

deliberately  and  conscientiously  on  the  great  mat-  ofagovem- 
ters  before  them,  he  proposed  four  fundamental 
articles  for  their  adoption.     They  were  as  follows  :  — 

1.  That  "  the  Scriptures  do  hold  forth  a  perfect  rule 
for  the  direction  and  government  of  all  men  in  all  duties 
which  they  are  to  perform  to  God  and  men,  as  well  in 
the  government  of  families  and  commonwealths  as  in 
matters  of  the  church." 

2.  "  That,  as  in  matters  that  concern  the  gathering 
and  ordering  of  a  church,  so  likewise  in  all  public  offices 
which  concern  civil  order,  as  choice  of  magistrates  and 
officers,  making  and  repealing  of  laws,  dividing  allotments 
of  inheritance,  and  all  things  of  like  nature,  they  would 
all  of  them  be  ordered  by  those  rules  which  the  Scrip- 
ture holds  forth." 

3.  That  they  were  "  settled  in  the  plantation  with  a 
purpose,  resolution,  and  desire,  that  they  might  be  ad- 
mitted into  church  fellowship  according  to  Christ,  as 
soon  as  God  should  fit  them  thereunto." 

4.  That  "  they  held  themselves  bound  to  establish 
such  civil  order  as  might  best  conduce  to  the  securing 
of  the  purity  and  peace  of  the  ordinances  to  themselves 
and  their  posterity  according  to  God." 

These  articles  having  been  discussed,  and  accepted  by 
unanimous  votes,  Mr.  Davenport  proposed,  and  the  com- 
pany adopted,  two  others,  designed  to  reduce  the  theory 
to  practice.     They  were, — 

5.  "  That  church  members  only  should  be  free  bur- 
gesses, and  that  they  only  should  choose  magistrates  and 
officers  among  themselves,  to  have  the  power  of  trans- 
acting all  the  public  civil  affairs  of  the  Plantation,  of 
making  and  repealing  laws,  dividing  of  inheritances,  de- 
ciding of  differences  that  might  arise,  and  doing  all  things 
or  businesses  of  like  nature." 


532  IIISTOKY   OF   NEW  ENGLAND.  [Rook  I. 

6.  "That  twelve  men  should  be  chosen,  that  their 
fitness  for  the  foundation  work  might  be  tried.  How- 
ever, there  might  be  more  named ;  yet  it  might  be  in 
their  power,  who  were  chosen,  to  reduce  them  to  twelve, 
and  it  should  be  in  the  power  of  those  twelve  to  choose 
out  of  themselves  seven,  that  should  be  most  approved 
of  the  major  part,  to  begin  the  church." 

These  articles  —  free,  like  the  "  plantation  covenant " 
of  the  previous  year,  from  all  acknowledgment  of  alle- 
giance or  subjection  to  the  parent  country  —  were  on 
the  day  of  their  adoption  subscribed  by  sixty-three  j^er- 
sons,  and  soon  after  by  about  fifty  more. 

The  fifth  article,  establishing  the  same  condition  of 
franchise  as  that  in  force  in  Massachusetts,  may  be  pre- 
sumed to  have  been  recommended  by  the  same  reasons 
as  had  there  prevailed.  After  its  adoption,  "  one  man  " 
(probably  the  minister,  Samuel  Eaton,  brother  of  The- 
ophilus  Eaton)  "  stood  up,  and  expressed  his  dissenting 
from  the  rest  in  part";  but  he  did  not  press  his  objec- 
tions.-^ The  twelve  men  chosen  under  the  last  article, 
after  due  time  for  reflection,  elected  the  "  seven  pillars," 

jn39.      and,  after  another  pause,  the  "  pillars  "  proceeded 

Aug.  22.  ^Q  their  ofiice  of  constituting  the  body  of  church 
members.  Next,  at  a  meeting  held  by  them  as  a  "  court," 
all  former  trusts  were  pronounced  vacated  and  null ;  their 
associates  in  the  church,  nine  in  number,  were 
recognized  as  freemen ;  and  Eaton,  elected  by  the 
sixteen  as  "  Magistrate "  for  a  year,  and  four  other  per- 
sons chosen  with  him  to  be  "  Deputies,"  were  addressed  by 
Mr.  Davenport  in  what  was  called  a  charge.^     A  "  public 

1  N.  II.  Col.  Itcc,  11-18.  — In  1G7.3  ing  that  Davenport  was  its  ■writer,  and 

was  published  at  Cambridge  "  A  Dis-  that  it  was  composed  by  him  while  the 

course   about   Civil    Government  in  a  question  of  the  New  Haven  constitu- 

new  Plantation  whose  Design  is  Rclig-  tion  was  pending,  with  a  view  to  satisfy 

ion."      The   title-page  attributes  it  to  his  doubting  colleague,  Samuel  Eaton. 
John  Cotton.      But  Dr.  Bacon  (Thir-         2  Jt    -was    grounded   upon   Deut.   i. 

teen    Historical  Discourses,  &c.,   289  -  IG,  17.     (N.  II.  CoL  Ilec,  21). 
292)  offers   strong  reasons  for   belie v- 


Chap.  XIII.]  NEW   HAVEN.  533 

notary,"  or  Secretary,  was  also  appointed,  and  a  "  mar- 
shall,"  or  Sheriff.  The  "  Freeman's  Charge,"  which  stood 
in  the  place  of  an  oath,  pledged  no  allegiance  to  the  king, 
nor  to  any  other  authority  than  "  the  civil  government 
here  established."  ^  The  little  state  of  Quinnipiack  was 
as  yet  independent  of  all  the  world. 

It  was  resolved  that  there  should  be  an  annual  Gen- 
eral Court,  or  meeting  of  the  whole  body,  in  the  month 
of  October ;  and  "  that  the  word  of  God  should  be  the 
only  rule  to  be  attended  unto  in  ordering  the  affairs  of 
government."^  By  the  authority  thus  constituted,  orders 
were  immediately  made  for  the  building  of  a  meeting- 
house, for  the  distribution  of  house-lots  and  pastui-age, 
for  precautions  against  attacks  from  the  savnges,  and  for 
regulation  of  the  prices  of  commodities  and  of  labor.  And 
the  general  course  of  administration  proceeded  thencefor- 
ward in  the  same  manner  as  in  the  earlier  well-organized 
plantations.  Like  the  people  of  the  other  settlements,  the 
planters  of  Quinnipiack  claimed  the  right  to  choose  their 
company,  and  at  an  early  moment  they  passed  an 
order  "  that  none  should  come  to  dwell  as  planters 
without  their  consent  and  allowance,  whether  they  came  in 
by  purchase  or  otherwise."  ^  In  its  second  year,  ig4o. 
they  gave  their  town  the  name  of  New  Haven}         ^'''"-  ^• 

Distress  from  want  of  food  was  never  felt  within  the 
limits  of  the  colony  of  which  the  foundation  had  here 
been  laid.  Nor  did  it  ever  have  a  war  with  the  natives. 
It  studied  to  treat  them  with  equity  and  indulgence. 
At  the  same  time,  it  took  care  to  make  them  understand 
its  vigilance  and  its  power.  A  straggler  of  the 
Pequot  tribe,  named  Nepaupuck,  convicted  on 
full  evidence  of  having  killed  an  Englishman  at  Wethers- 
field,  and  of  having  taken  part  in  the  murder  of  three 
others   in   a   boat   on  Connecticut   Hiver,   confessed   the 


1  N.  H.  Col.  Rec,  19.  3  Ibid.,  25. 

2  Ibid.,  20,  21.  4  Ibid.,  40. 

45* 


1639. 
Oct  29. 


534  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  L 

crime ;   and   "  his  head  was    cut    off  the  next  day,  and 
pitched  upon  a  pole  in  the  market-place."  ^ 

The  Englishmen  at  Quinnipiack  had  not  fully  arranged 
their  own  social  system  before  they  began  to  swarm ;  and 
others,  of  similar  sentiments  and  objects,  came  presently 
to  seek  homes  in  their  neighborhood.  Among  the  new- 
comers were  the  E-everend  Henry  "Whitefield ;  AVilliam 
Leet,  destined  to  act  a  distinguished  part  in  the  colony ; 
and  Samuel  Desborough,  brother  of  Cromwell's  general 
of  that  name.  A  company  of  two  hundred  persons, 
some  of  them  from  Quinnipiack,  some  from  Wethers- 
field,  were  led  by  the  Eeverend  Mr.  Prudden  to  a 
harbor  on  Long  Island  Sound,  near  the  mouth    of  the 

Housatonic,  which  they  bought  of  the  Indians, 

ofMiiford.  ^ncl,  after  a  year's  occupation,  called  by  the  name 

Au^foo     of  M'dford.     Another  party,  fresh  from  England, 

under  the  conduct  of  Mr.  Whitefield,  went  some- 
what further  in  the   opposite   direction,  and  established 

themselves,   also    on   the  shore   of  Lone:    Island 

Settlement  ^^ 

of  Guilford.  Sound,  at  a  place  named  by  them  Guilford^  after 
^^^'  ~ '    the   English   town  from  which   several   of  them 
had   come.     Leet,  then  a  young  man,  and   Desborough, 
were  of  this  company. 

The  founders  .both  of  Milford  and  Guilford,  taking  for 
their  model  the  proceedings  at  the  recent  settlement, 
erected  their  church  and  state  on  a  foundation  of  "  seven 
pillars."  The  original  magistrates  of  Guilford  were  Eobert 
Kitchel,  William  Chittenden,  John  Bishop,  and  William 
Leete.  At  Milford,  William  Fowler,  Edmund  Tapp, 

Nov.  20.  ,  ,         '  '  i  i  ' 

Zechariah  Whitman,  John  Astwood,  and  Richard 
Miles,  were  elected  to  be  "judges  in  all  civil  afiairs,  to 
try  all  causes  between  man  and  man,  and  as  a  court  to 
punish  any  ofience  and  misdemeanor."  They  were  to 
hold  office  till  the  next  annual  court  in    October,"  and 


1  N.  II.  Col.  Rcc,  22-24. 

2  Lambert,  History  of  the  Colony  of  Nuw  Haven,  92. 


Chap.  XIIL]  CONNECTICUT.  535 

were  probably  re-elected  from  year  to  year,  except  Miles, 
who  soon  removed  to  New  Haven.  Departing  from  the 
method  of  organization  which  had  been  pursued  in  Ply- 
mouth, Massachusetts,  and  Connecticut,  the  settlement 
at  New  Haven,  and  those  which  had  made  it  their 
model,  continued,  for  the  present,  independent  of  each 
other. ^  They  preferred  what,  in  Greek  history,  has  been 
called  the  system  of  autonomy.  Perhaps  the  incentive 
to  this  scheme  was  an  idea  of  extending  to  civil  institu- 
tions the  Separatist  theory  of  an  absolute  independence 
of  churches. 

When  the  Pequot  war  had  been  concluded,  the  most 
urgent  business  demanding  the  attention  of  the  General 
Court  of  the  towns  on  Connecticut  River  was  to  defi-ay 
its  expenses  (for  which  purpose  a  special  tax  of  six  hun- 
dred and  twenty  pounds  was  levied) ;  ^  to  make      iggg. 
arrangements  for  future  security,  including  meas-     ^®'''^' 
ures  for  protecting  the  Indians  against  everything  that 
might  be  reasonable  ground  of  offence ;  and  to  purchase 
from   them   supplies   of  food  till  the  new  fields   should 
become  productive.^      These  first  cares  disposed  of,  the 
planters  of  Windsor,  Hartford,  and  Wethersfield      1^2% 
met,  to  constitute  a  "  public  state  or  common-    •^*"  "• 
wealth  "  by  voluntary  combination,  and  to  settle  its  frame 
of  government.      Their  object   they  declared  to  be,  "  to 
maintain  and  preserve  the  liberty  and  purity  of  the  Gospel 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  which  they  professed,  as  also  Frame  of 
the  discipline  of  the  churches,  which  according-  government 

•■■  '^     in  Connect- 

to  the  truth  of  the  said  Gospel  was  now  practised  'C"t- 

among  them ;   as  also,  in  their  civil  affairs,  to  be  guided 

and  governed  according  to  such  laws,  rules,  orders,  and 

decrees,  as  should  be  made,  ordered,  and  decreed."  "* 

The  instrument  framed  by  them  has  been  called  "  the 

1  "  Every  plantation  intended  a  pe-        2  Conn.  Col.  Eec,  12. 
culiar    government."      (Winthrop,    I.        3  ji^id.^  11  _20. 
306.)  4  Ibid.,  21. 


536  HISTOKY  OF  KEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

first  example  in  history  of  a  written  constitution,  —  a  dis- 
tinct organic  law,  constituting  a  government,  and  defining 
its  powers."  ^  Containing  no  recognition  whatever  of  any 
external  authority  on  either  side  of  the  ocean,  it  provided, 
that  all  persons  should  be  freemen  who  should  be  ad- 
mitted as  such  by  the  freemen  of  the  towns,  and  take 
an  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  commonwealth ;  —  that  there 
should  be  two  general  meetings  of  the  freemen  in  a  year, 
at  one  of  which,  to  be  holden  in  April,  should  be  elected 
by  ballot  a  Governor  (who  must  be  a  member  of  some 
church),  and  as  many  Magistrates  (not,  however,  fewer 
than  six),  and  other  public  officers,  as  should  "  be  found 
requisite"  ;  —  that  at  the  same  times  there  should  be  meet- 
ings of  Deputies,  four  to  be  sent  from  each  of  the  existing 
towns,  and  as  many  as  the  General  Court  should  deter- 
mine from  towns  subsequently  constituted ;  —  and  that  the 
General  Court,  consisting  of  the  Governor  and  at  least 
four  Magistrates  and  a  majority  of  the  Deputies,  should 
have  power  to  make  laws  for  the  whole  jurisdiction,  "  to 
grant  levies,  to  admit  freemen,  dispose  of  lands  undis- 
posed of  to  several  towns  or  persons,  to  call  either  court 
or  Magistrate  or  any  other  person  whatsoever  into  ques- 
tion for  any  misdemeanor,"  and  to  "  deal  in  any  other 
matter  that  concerned  the  good  of  the  commonwealth, 
except  election  of  Magistrates,"  which  was  to  "  be  done 
by  the  whole  body  of  freemen."  The  Governor  was  not 
re-eligible  till  a  year  after  the  expiration  of  his  term  of 
office.  In  the  absence  of  special  laws,  "  the  rule  of  the 
word  of  God  "  was  to  be  followed.-     Neither  the  oaths  of 

1  Bacon,  Early  Constitutional  Ilis-  Colony  of  Connertiout,"  for  an  abstract 
tory  of  Connecticut,  5,  6.  of  a  sermon  deciphered  by  liini  from  a 

2  Conn.  Col.  Rec,  20-25.  The  manuscript  in  short-hand,  preserved  in 
instrument,  drawn  with  great  care  and  the  Library  of  the  Hartford  Historical 
knowledge,  seems  to  bear  marks  of  the  Society.  This  sermon,  preached  by  Mr. 
statesmanlike  mind  of  Ilaynes,  and  the  Hooker  to  the  General  Court  in  May, 
lawyerlike  mind  of  Ludlow,  T  am  in-  1638,  may  probably  have  been  intend- 
debted  to  my  learned  friend,  Mr.  J.  H.  ed  to  prepare  the  people  for  the  great 
Trumbull,  editor  of  the  "  Records  of  the  step  which  was  soon  after  taken.     Its 


Chap.  XIII.]  CONNECTICUT.  537 

officers  nor  of  freemen  promised  any  allegiance  except  to 
"  the  jurisdiction."^  The  whole  constitution  was  that  of 
an  independent  state.  It  continued  in  force,  with  very 
little  alteration,  a  hundred  and  eighty  years,  securing, 
throughout  that  period,  a  degree  of  social  order  and  hap- 
piness such  as  is  rarely  the  fruit  of  civil  institutions. 

At    the   first   election,   Haynes,   formerly   Governor   of 
Massachusetts,   was    chosen   Governor.      Roger   Ludlow, 
of  Windsor,  formerly  Deputy-Governor  of  Mas-  j,,gp,i„„^f 
sachusetts,   and    Edward    Hopkins,   formerly    an   magistrates. 

April  11. 

opulent  merchant  of  London,-  were  two  of  the 
six  Magistrates,  Ludlow  having  precedence  as  Deputy- 
Governor.  William  Phelps,  another  Magistrate,  had,  as 
well  as  Ludlow,  heen  one  of  the  Commissioners  of  Mas- 
sachusetts for  the  manaofement  of  the  Connecticut  towns 
in  the  year  of  their  settlement. 

The  government  having  heen  thus  organized,  the  ad- 
ministration proceeded  in  substantially  the  same  manner 
as  in   the  earlier  governments  of  Massachusetts  Eariy 
and   Plymouth,  except   that  in   Connecticut   the  legislation. 
Court  of  Magistrates  confined  itself  more  to  judicial  busi- 
ness.    In  the  first  year  a  general  law  was  passed,  of  an 
elaborate  character,  for  the  incorporation  of  towns, 
on  the  model  of  those  in  Massachusetts,  each  with 
a  government,   for  municipal  afiairs,   of  "  three,  five,  or 
seven   of  their   chief  inhabitants,"   chosen   annually   by 
themselves.     A   public   registry  was   established  in   each 
town  for  conveyances  of  real  estate,  Avith  the  provision, 

doctrines  (drawn  from  Deut.  i.  13)  are  power  also  to  set  the  bounds  and  lim- 

tliefoUowing:  — "1.  The  choice  of  pub-  itations  of  the  power  and  place  unto 

lie  magistrates  belongs  unto  the  peo-  which  they  call  them." 

pie,  by  God's  own  allowance.     2.  The  '   Conn.  Col.  Rec,  25,  2G,  54. 

privilege  of  election  which  belongs  to  ^  He  was  the  husband  of  Theophilus 

the  people  must  not  be  exercised   ac-  Eaton's  stepdaughter  (Kingsley,  Histori- 

cording  to  their  humors,  but  according  cal  Discourse,  &c.,  76),  and  had  come  to 

to  the  blessed   will   and   law   of  God.  Boston  in  1637,  in  the  same  vessel  with 

3.  They  who  have   power  to  appoint  Eaton   (see  above,   p.  528)   and  Lord 

officers  and  magistrates,  it  is  in  their  Leigh  (see  above,  p.  482). 


538  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  L 

that  "  all  bargains  or  mortgages  of  land  whatsoever  should 
be  accounted  of  no  value  until  they  were  recorded."  "For 
the  better  keeping  in  mind  of  those  passages  of  God's 
Providence  which  had  been  remarkable  since  the  first 
undertaking  these  plantations,"  six  principal  men  were 
"  desired  to  take  the  pains  severally  in  their  respective 
towns,  and  then  jointly  together,  to  gather  up  the  same," 
to  be  recorded  ;  and  their  office  was  made  permanent  "  for 
future  times,"  with  provisions  for  such  superintendence  as 
might  prevent  errors  from  finding  their  way  into  history. 
But  the  plan  does  not  appear  to  have  been  carried  out.^ 
At  the  second  election  under  the  constitution,  Edward 
Hopkins  was  chosen  Governor,  and  John  Haynes  Deputy- 
Governor.  Ludlow  was  made  a  Magistrate,  and  the  four 
other  Magistrates  of  the  last  year  were  rechosen. 

Connecticut  had  in  the  course  of  the  year  interposed 
itself,  by  two  new  plantations,  between  New  Haven  and 
the  Dutch.  Mr.  Ludlow,  with  eight  or  ten  families  from 
Windsor,  began  a  settlement  at  an  inviting  spot  called 
by  the  Indians  Uiicoa,  and  by  the  English  Fairjield,  at 
the   head    of  a   small   inlet   from    Long   Island 

Fairfield.  .     .  ,       ,  ^ 

Sound.       ihey   were    jouied    by   a    party   irom 
"Watertown  in  Massachusetts,  and  before  long  by  another 
from  Concord  ;  and  after  some  questions,  in  which  Mr. 
1(340.      Ludlow  did  not  escape   censure,  their  Deputies 
June  11.    ^vere  admitted  to  the  General  Court  of  Connec- 
ticut."    East  of  Fairfield,  between  it  and  the  Housatonic, 
and  near  the  mouth  of  that  river,  a  number  of  persons  — 
several  recently  arrived  from  England,  several  from  Bos- 
ton and  other  parts  of  Massachusetts,  and  a  few  from  the 
Connecticut  towns  —  collected  on  an  expanse  of  meadow- 
land,  known  then  by  the  names  of  Cupheage  and  Pequan- 
nock,  and  since  by  that  of  Strafford.     The  General  Court 
Stratford,   rocognizcd  them  by  setting  out  their  bounds  and 
Juno  15.    providing  for  the  administration  of  justice  within 

1  Conn.  Col.  Rec,  35-40.  2  Ibid.,  36. 


Chap.  XIIL]  PLYMOUTH.  539 

tliem.^     They  had  bought  then'  lands  of  the  Indians,  and 
pretended  no  other  title.^ 

The  post  at  the  mouth  of  the  Connecticut,  which  Gardi- 
ner had  commanded  in  the  Pequot  war,  had  as  yet,  and 
for  four  or  five  years  longer,  no  political  connection  with 
the  upper  towns.  It  was  nothing  but  a  fort,  occupied  by 
some  twenty  men,  and  surrounded  by  a  few  buildings 
and    a   little    cultivated   land,    till    George  Fen- 

'  o  George  Fen- 

wick,  "  and  his  lady  and  family,  arrived  to  make  « ick  at  say- 
a  plantation."  ^  Fenwick,  "  a  worthy,  pious  gen-  iggg. 
tleman,  and  of  a  good  family  and  estate,"  ^  had  •^"'^• 
been  a  barrister  of  Gray's  Inn.^  His  wife  was  a  daugh- 
ter of  Sir  Edward  Apsley.*^  He  was  interested  in  the 
Connecticut  patent,  and  to  explore  its  territory  had  made 
a  short  visit  to  this  country  three  years  before.^  He 
now  came  as  agent  for  the  patentees,  and,  fixing  on  the 
site  at  the  river's  mouth  as  his  residence,  gave  it  the 
name  of  Sai/hrooJc,  in  honor  of  the  two  noblemen  who 
were  the  most  distinguished  members  of  the  company 
which  he  represented. 

The  reader  has  seen  how  the  spirit  of  commercial  en- 
terprise, which  in  later  times  has  so  distinguished  the 
inhabitants  of  Plymouth  Colony,  was  early  manifested  in 
the  establishment  of  distant  trading-houses  on  the  Penob- 
scot and  Kennebec  to  the  northeast,  and  on  the  Plymouth 
Connecticut  to  the  southwest.®  In  both  direc-  factories, 
tions  the  adventures  were  attended  with  little  profit  and 
with  no  little  annoyance.      The  seizure  and  robbery  of 

1  Conn.  Col.  Rec,  53.  5  Winthrop,  I.  460. 

2  Mr.  Hopkins  and  Mr.  Goodwin  6  This  lady  was,  I  suppose,  of  the 
purchased  from  the  Indians  all  the  family  of  the  wife  of  Colonel  Hutch- 
land  between  Milford  and  Hudson's  inson.  (See  above,  p.  280,  note  1.) 
River,  John  Higginson,  of  Hartford,  Fenwick's  second  wife,  espoused  after 
acting  as  their  interpreter.  (Records  his  return  to  England,  was  a  daughter 
of  Stratford,  as  quoted  by  Goodwin,  of  Sir  Arthur  Hazelrigg. 
Genealogical  Notes,  &c.,  2,  note.)  '  AVinthrop,  I.  470. 

3  Winthrop,  I.  306.  8  See  above,  pp.  230,  337,  340. 
*  Hutchinson,  I.  97. 


540  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

the  Penobscot  factory  by  a  party  of  French,  soon  after  its 
establishment,  has  akeady  been  related.^  An  attempt  at 
a  re-establishment  of  it  proved  no  more  prosperous.  On 
the  strength  of  the  cession  to  the  French,  by  the  treaty 

1G32.  of  St.  Germains,  of  the  territory  of  New  France 
March  29.  capturcd  by  the  English  three  years  before,  Ra- 
silli,  the  French  commander  at  Cape  Breton,  claimed  for 
his  master  the  country  as  far  to  the  southwest  as  Pema- 
quid.^  Charles  de  Menou  d'Aulnay  and  Charles  Eti- 
enne  de  la  Tour  were  his  subordinates  in  its  government. 
The  former  was  in  charge  of  the  division  west  of  the 

1C35.  St.  Croix.  He  came  by  sea  to  the  Plymouth 
August.  Jiouse  on  the  Penobscot,  helped  himself  to  the 
goods  there  deposited,  with  a  promise  of  future  payment 
at  his  own  valuation,  warned  off  the  Plymouth  traders 
as  trespassers,^  and  occupied  their  house  for  his  own 
residence.  The  intelligence  of  this  proceeding  natu- 
rally occasioned  great  exasperation  at  Plymouth.  The 
Magistrates  in  vain  solicited  the  government  of  Massa- 
unsuccessfui  cliusctts  for  aid  to  recapture  the  post ;  the  Bay 
iSstThe  exchequer  was  too  empty.  The  most  they  could 
French.  obtaiu  was  permission  to  engage  at  their  own 
cost  one  Girling,  master  of  a  ship  then  lying  at  Boston, 
to  undertake  the  conquest.  The  enterprise  miscarried 
through  his  incompetency,  which  he  refused  to  have  sup- 
plied by  the  superior  courage  and  conduct  of  Standish, 
who  had  been  sent  along  with  him.  It  had  cost  too 
much  to  be  renewed,  and  the  Penobscot  remained  in 
unfriendly  hands."* 

In  respect  to  the  wrong  which  the  Plymouth  people 
conceived  themselves  to  have  suffered  from  the  English 
planters  on  the  Connecticut,  their  generosity  did  not 
limit  itself  to  mere  forbearance  from  retaliation.^     Three 

1  See  above,  p.  337.  ■*  Bradford,  333,  336;  Winthrop,  I. 

2  See  above,  p.  205,  1G8,  169. 

3  Bradford,  332.     Winthrop,  I.  1G6.         5  See  above,  p.  452. 


Chap.  XIIL]  PLYMOUTH.  541 

vessels,  "  going  to  Connecticut  with  goods  from  the 
Massachusetts  of  such  as  removed  thither  to  plant," 
havins^   been    cast   away    near    Plymouth,    "  the 

^  J  J  ^  Generous 

Governor  caused  the  goods  to  be  gathered  up,  conduct  of 

J        ,  ,  ,  .  -  tlie  Plymouth 

and  drawn  together,  and  apponited  some  to  people. 
take  an  inventory  of  them,  and  others  to  wash  ^*^^'^* 
and  dry  such  things  as  had  need  thereof,  by  which 
means  most  of  the  goods  were  saved  and  returned  to 
their  owners."  ^  Their  Dutch  rivals  in  that  quarter  they 
had  before  treated  with  no  less  humanity.  A  party  of 
these  "  went  up  at  the  beginning  of  winter  to  live  Avith 
the  Indians,  to  get  their  trade,  and  prevent  them 
from  bringing  it  to  the  English,  or  to  fall  into 
amity  with  them."  The  small-pox  broke  out  and  made 
great  ravages  among  the  natives.  The  Dutchmen,  "  al- 
most starved  before  they  could  get  away,  for  ice  and  snow, 
got  with  much  difficulty  to  the  Plymouth  trading-house, 
whom  they  kindly  relieved,  being  almost  spent  with 
hunsrer  and  cold."  ^  Nor  were  the  sufFerino^  Indians 
neglected.  "  Those  of  the  English  house,  though  at  first 
they  were  afraid  of  the  infection,  yet,  seeing  their  woful 
and  sad  condition,  and  hearing  their  pitiful  cries  and 
lamentations,  they  had  compassion  of  them,  and  daily 
fetched  them  wood  and  water  and  made  them  fires,  got 
them  victuals  whilst  they  lived,  and  buried  them  when 
they  died."^ 

This  was  before  the  Pequot  war.  In  another  trans- 
action with  the  Indians  after  that  event,  considerations 
of  equity  were  enforced  by  reasons  of  prudence.  Some 
natives  brought  three  Englishmen  to  Rhode  Island, 
charging  them  with  having  waylaid,  robbed,  and 
fatally   wounded    one    of  the    Pokanoket    tribe. 

1  "  Such    crosses  they    [the   INIassa-  place.     But  I  dare   not  be   bold   -with 
chusetts  interlopers]  met  with  in  their  God's  judgments  in  this  kind."     (Brad- 
beginnings,   which  some  imputed  as  a  ford,  348,  349.) 
correction   from    God  for  their   intru-         2  Ibid.,  325. 
sion,  to  the  wrong  of  others,  into  that        3  Ibid  ,  326. 

VOL.  I.  46 


542  HISTORY  OF  new  England.  [Book  i. 

While  they  were  detained  as  prisoners,  Roger  Williams, 
taking  with  him  a  physician,  found  the  wounded  man, 
who  died  after  fully  confirming  the  report.  Williams 
wrote  to  consult  the  Governor  of  Massachusetts,  who 
advised  that  the  Plymouth  people  should  assume  juris- 
diction of  the  matter,  if  they  would,  the  prisoners  being 
of  that  colony,'  "  but  pressed  by  all  means  that  justice 
might  be  done  in  it,  or  else  the  country  must  rise  and  see 
justice  done,  otherwise  it  would  raise  a  war."  They  were 
accordingly  sent  to  Plymouth,  where,  on  their  confession, 
they  were  convicted  by  a  jury,  and  executed  in 
the  presence  of  several  natives.  "  But  it  was  a 
matter  of  much  sadness  to  them  here,  and  was  the  second 
execution  which  they  had  since  they  came."-  The  Gov- 
ernor of  Plymouth  felt  some  hesitation  about  proceeding, 
"  especially  for  that  he  heard  they  intended  to  appeal  into 
England."  But  Winthrop,  on  being  consulted  by  him,  cut 
that  knot.  "  The  Governor  returned  answer  of  encourage- 
ment to  proceed  notwithstanding,  seeing  no  appeal  did  lie."^ 
The  perplexities  incident  to  the  commercial  connec- 
tion with  the  English  partners  were  still  far  from  being 
„,.  ,         unravelled.      Among   the    objects    of  Winslow's 

Winslow  O  J 

in  England,  misslon  to  England,  one  has  been  already  men- 
tioned ;  "*  another  was  the  defence  of  the  char- 
ter rights  of  Massachusetts  before  the  Privy  Council ; 
and  another  still,  the  final  adjustment  of  the  mercantile 
affairs  of  Plymouth.^  One  of  his  first  measures  after 
arriving  incurred  the  disapprobation  of  the  far-sighted 
Governor  of  Massachusetts.  In  a  petition  to  the  Lords 
Commissioners  for  Foreign  Plantations,  in  which  were  set 

1  If  Plymouth  should   refuse,  "Win-     "Williams   in   Mass.   Ilist.    Col.,  XXI. 
throp  advised  (I.  267)  that  the  princi-     171-173. 

pal  offender  should  be  given  up  to  the  3  "Winthrop,  I.  268. 

Indians,   since   "they   at   the    Island"  4  See  above,  p.  339. 

(Aquetnet)  had  not  "  any  government  5  He  took  with  him  to  the  partners  a 

established."  remittance  of  furs  valuc<l  at  four  thou- 

2  Bradford,    362  -  365.  —  Letter   of  sand  pounds  sterling.    (Bradford,  323.) 


Chap.  XIIL]  PLYMOUTH.  543 

forth  the  ambitious  designs  of  the  French  and  Dutch,  he 
prayed  the  Commissioners,  "  on  the  behalf  of  the  planta- 
tions in  New  England,"  to  "either  procure  their  peace 
with  those  foreign  states,  or  else  to  give  special  warrant 
unto  the  English  to  fight  and  defend  themselves  against 
all  foreign  enemies  "  ; '  —  a  step,  says  Winthrop,  "  under- 
taken by  ill  advice,  for  such  precedents  might  endanger 
our  liberty,  that  we  should  do  nothing  but  by  commission 
out  of  England."  - 

Winslow  flattered  himself  prematurely  that  his  business 
was  prospering.  At  the  time  of  his  arrival  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  General  Governor  was  seriously  meditated. 
When,  in  a  hearing  before  the  Council,  he  had  successfully 
parried  the  charges  made  by  Morton  under  the  instigation 
of  Gorges  and  Mason,  the  Archbishop,  taking  him  to  task 
for  officiating  in  religious  ministrations,  and  for  marry- 
ing in  his  capacity  of  magistrate,  browbeat  the  Commis- 
sioners into  ordering  his  committal  to  the  Fleet  prison, 
where  he  lay  four  months.^  When  the  business  with 
Shirley,  Beauchamp,  and  Andrews,  the  London  partners, 
was  resumed,''  it  was  under  some  disadvantage  from  this 
delay.  The  Plymouth  people  believed  that  they  had 
already  made  remittances  of  merchandise  more  than  suf- 
ficient to  discharge  their  obligations.  But  they  had  re- 
posed a  degree  of  confidence,  such  as  in  transactions  be- 
tween the  most  upright  men  does  not  tend  to  the  highest 
ultimate  satisfaction ;  barter  accounts  had  gone  on  un- 
stated from  year  to  year ;  questions  arose  upon  mutually 
conflicting  claims  of  the  English  associates ;  and  the  com- 
plicated embarrassments  became  distressing  to  persons  who 
could  not  consent  to  fall  short  of  their  engagements,  but 

1  Bradford,  328.  uate.     (Bradford,  301.)     He  came  in 

2  AVinthrop,  I.  172.  1632.     In  1633  lands  at  Scituate  were 

3  Bradford,  329,  330.  granted  by  the  Court  to  him  and  his 

4  Hatherley,  the  fourth  partner,  (see  three  associates.  (Plym.  Coh  Rec, 
above,  p.  230,  note  3,)  was  now  in  I.  13,81.)  —  Scituate  (at  first  spelled 
America,  at  his  new  plantation  of  Scit-  Saluit)  was  an  Indian  name. 


1638. 


544  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

who  could  not  aiford  to  go  much  beyond  them.'  Re- 
peatedly, after  seeming  to  themselves  to  have  already 
done  more  than  discharge  their  debt,  they  were  moved 
by  some  new  complaint  to  send  to  England  all  the  later 
accumulations  of  their  hard  labor. 

But,  notwithstanding  such  discouragements,  prosperity 
could  not  fail  at  last  to  come  in  the  train  of  industry  and 
intelligence  such  as  were  exercised  at  Plymouth.  The 
Prosperity  of  large  emigration  to  Massachusetts  created  a  prof- 
piynioutii.  itable  market.  "  It  pleased  God,  in  these  times, 
so  to  bless  the  country  with  such  access  and  confluence  of 
people  into  it,  as  it  was  thereby  much  enriched,  and  cattle 
of  all  kinds  stood  at  a  high  rate  for  divers  years  together." 
A  cow  was  sold  for  twenty  pounds,  sometimes 
even  as  high  as  twenty-eight  pounds ;  a  goat  for 
three  or  four  pounds ;  and  corn  for  six  shillings  a  bushel  ; 
"  by  which  means   the  ancient  planters  which  had  any 

stock  began  to  grow  in  their  estates, so  as  other 

trading  began  to  be  neglected."     The  commerce  with  the 
Indians  on  the  Kennebec,  which  had  been  likely  to  be 
abandoned,  was  farmed  by  the  colony  to  a  new  company, 
for  the  rent  of  a  sixth  part  of  the  profits,  "  with  the  first 
fruits  of  which  they  built  a  house  for  a  prison.""     This 
was  one  sign  of  the  permanency  of  the  settlement,  which 
hitherto  had  been  matter  of  uncertainty.     When  the  Dor- 
chester planters  came  to  the  Connecticut,  their 
Plymouth  rivals   complained  of  being  deprived 
"  of  that  which  they  had  with  charge  and  hazard  pro- 
vided, and  intended  to  remove  to,  as  soon  as  they  could 
1G38.      and  were  able."  ^     Three  years  later,  it  was  re- 
june  1.     niarked   of  "  a   great   and   fearful    earthquake " 
which  M'as  felt  at  Plymouth  and  the  other  settlements, 

1  Bradford,  331,  344  -  318,  3C1,  3G2,  "that  they  Avcrc  upon  a  barren  place, 

3G5-3G7.  -where    they  were   by    necessity    cast; 

~  Ibid.,  3G5;  Plym.  Col.  Rec,  I.  115.  and  neither  they  nor  theirs  could  long 

3  Bradford,     341.      "It    was    well  continue  upon  the  same."    (Ibid.)    See 

known,"   the    Plymouth    people    said,  above,  p.  452. 


Chap.  XIIT.]  PLYMOUTH.  545 

that  "  it  fell  out  at  the  same  time  divers  of  the  chief  of 
this  town  were  met  together  at  one  house,  conferring 
with  some  of  their  friends  that  were  upon  their  removal 
from  the  place,  as  if  the  Lord  would  hereby  show  the 
signs  of  his  displeasure  in  their  shaking  a  pieces  and 
removals  one  from  another."  ^ 

One  reason  of  their  unsettled  state  was  the  continued 
ill-success  of  their  endeavors   to   obtain  a  minister  who 
should  in  some  measure  supply  to  them  the  place  Disappoim- 
of  their  venerated   Robinson.      Smith  was   soon  XurcVaf- 
seen  to  be  a  man  of  mean  abilities,  and,  after  six  ^'""' 
or  seven  years'  patient  endurance  of  him  by  the  colony,  he 
"  laid  down  his  place  of  ministry,  partly  by  his 
own  willingness,  as  thinking  it  too  heavy  a  burden, 
and  partly  at  the  desire  and  by  the  persuasion  of  others."  ^ 
To  assist  him,  Winslow  had  brouo^ht  over  from 

^  ,  1635. 

England  Mr.  John  Norton,  who  "  was  well  liked 
of  them,  and  much  desired  by  them."  ^  But  he  remained 
at  Plymouth  only  through  a  winter,  and  then  departed, 
to  enter  on  a  conspicuous  career  in  Massachusetts.  On 
Smith's  retirement,  "  it  pleased  the  Lord  to  send  them," 
in  Mr.  Rayner,  "  an  able  and  a  godly  man,  and  of  a  meek 
and  humble  spirit,  sound  in  the  truth,  and  every  way  un- 
reprovable  in  his  life  and  conversation  " ;  but  not,  it  ap- 
pears, of  commanding  abilities  or  character.  Two  years 
after  Norton's  departure,  Mr.  Charles  Chauncy, 

_  _ -  1C38. 

"  a  reverend,  godly,  and  very  learned  man,"  as  he 
afterwards  fully  proved  himself,  was  brought  to  Rayner's 
aid.  He  soon  announced  himself  to  be  a  behever  in  the 
doctrine  of  baptism  by  immersion.  Indisposed  to  have 
any  variance  with  him  on  that  account,  the  congregation 
offered  to  respect  his  conscience,  if  he  would  but  tolerate 
theirs,  and  to  allow  the  rite  to  be  performed  by  the 
two  ministers  in  whichever  way  they  and  the  subjects 
of  it  should  prefer.     "  But  he  said  he  could  not  yield 

1  Bradford,  366.  2  Ibid.,  351.  3  Jbid.,  343. 

46* 


5-lG  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

thereunto  "  ;  and,  after  unsuccessful  attempts  at  accommo- 
dation, he  withdrew  from  his  relation  to  the  Plymouth 
church,  at  the  end  of  nearly  three  years.^ 

For  almost  sixteen  years  from  the  beginning  of  the 
Old  Colony,  the  scanty  record  which  remains  of  the 
public  administration  exhibits  it  as  principally  occupied 
with  police  and  military  regulations,  and  rules  and  orders 

for  the  division  of  lands  and  the  settlement  of 

civuTdmin-  estates.     In  the  sixteenth  year,  a  committee  was 

istration.      j^aiscd,  cousistiug  of  four  freemen  of  Plymouth, 

1C3G.      ^^YQ  of  Scituate,  and  two  of  Duxbury,  to  aid  the 

Governor  and  Assistants  in  codifying  the  laws,  of 
which  "  divers  were  found  worthy  the  reforming,  others 
the  rejecting,  and  others  fit  to  be  instituted  and  made."^ 

Besides  a  system  of  general  jurisprudence,  such 

as  suited  the  simple  wants  of  the  colony,  their 
report  included  a  revisal  of  the  Constitution  of  govern- 
ment.^ It  provided  that  annual  elections  of  a  Governor, 
seven  Assistants,  a  Treasurer,  a  Coroner,  a  Clerk,  Consta- 
bles, and  other  inferior  officers,  should  be  made  by  the 
freemen  on  the  first  Tuesday  of  March  ;  and  it  defined  the 
very  narrow  powers  of  those  functionaries,  reserving  to 
the  body  of  freemen  the  chief  share  both  of  legislation  and 
of  administration.  The  oaths  prescribed  to  be  taken  by 
freemen  and  residents,  as  well  as  by  officers,  —  unlike  those 
in  use  in  Massachusetts  and  in  the  western  settlements,  — 
comprehended  an  engagement  of  loyalty  to  the  king ;  and 
the  Courts  were  ordered  to  be  held  in  his  name.  Laws 
and  ordinances  were  to  be  made  only  by  the  freemen,  who 
were  cautioned  to  be  just  in  laying  taxes  upon  others. 
The  same  policy,  by  which  in  Massachusetts  the  holders 

1  Winthrop,  T.  330;  Bradford,  351,  Laws,  of  the  Colony  of  New  Plymouth," 
382,  3«3.  36    et  seq.     No   vote   of  the    General 

2  Plym.  Col.  Rec,  T.  43.  Court,  adoptinrr  it,  has  been  preserved, 

3  It  has  been  printed  from  the  orijri-  though  the  subsequent  rerord,  from  time 
nal  at  Plymouth  by  Mr.  Brigham,  in  to  time,  of  proceedings  conformable  to 
his  "  Compact,  with  the  Charter  and  it,  shows  it  to  have  gone  into  effect. 


Chap.  XIIL]  PLYMOUTH.  547 

of  the  soil  selected  their  associates,  was  adopted  in  a 
supplementary  rule,  "  that  no  person  or  persons  1637.  . 
thereafter  should  be  permitted  to  live  and  inhabit  '^*"'=''''- 
within  the  government  of  New  Plymouth  without  the 
leave  and  liking  of  the  Governor,  or  two  of  the  Assistants, 
at  least."  ^  The  frame  of  government  was  before  long 
completed  by  the  creation  of  a  second  class  of  legislators. 
On  a  "  complaint  that  the  freemen  were  put  to 

.  ,  ,       .  1638. 

many  inconveniences  and  great  expenses  by  their 
continual  attendance  at  the  Courts,"  it  was  "  enacted  by 
the  Court,  for  the  ease  of  the  several  colonies  and  towns 
within  the  government,  that  every  town  should  make 
choice  of  two  of  their  freemen,  and  the  town  of  Plymouth 
of  four,  to  be  Committees  or  Deputies  to  join  with  the 
bench  to  enact  and  make  all  such  laws  and  ordinances  as 
should  be  judged  to  be  good  and  wholesome  for  the 
whole."  Laws  might,  however,  be  enacted  or  repealed 
by  the  whole  body  of  freemen,  convened  in  their  Courts 
of  Election.  The  Deputies  —  who  w^ere  to  be  freemen  — 
were  to  be  paid  by  their  towns ;  and  tax-paying  "  masters 
of  families,"  though  not  freemen,  were  to  have  a  vote 
in  their  election.  Deputies  found  to  be  "  insufficient  or 
troublesome "  might  be  "  dismissed "  by  their  associates 
and  the  Assistants,  in  which  case  their  town  should 
"  choose  other  freemen  in  their  place."  ^  At  a  General 
Court  in  the  next  year.  Deputies  appeared  from  1639. 
seven  towns,  namely,  Plymouth,  Duxbury,  Scit-  ^""®^" 
uate,  Sandwich,  Cohannet,  Yarmouth,  and  Barnstable.^ 
In  the  same  year  "  Ussamequin  [Massasoit]  and  Mooa- 
nam,  his  son,  came  into  the  Court  in  their  own  Indian  treaty. 
proper  persons,"  and,  at  their  request,  "the  an-  ^^p'-^^- 
cient  league  and  confederacy,  formerly  made,"  and  now 

1  Brigham,  Compact,  &c.  57.  —  Mas-  •'  keep  them  whilst  they  stayed,  and  re- 

ters  of  vessels  bringing  passengers  into  carry  them  and  their  goods  to  the  place 

any  plantation   without  leave   "  either  from  whence  they  came."     (Ibid.,  62.) 

from  the  government  or  committees  of  2  Ibid.,  63. 

the    place,"   were    further  obliged  to  3  piym.  Col.  Rec,  I.  126. 


548  HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

enlarged  by  some  further  stipulations,  was  renewed,  and 
ordered  to  "  stand  and  remain  inviolable."  ^ 

In  Massachusetts,  the  thoughts  of  the  freemen  had  not 
been  engrossed  by  the  pressing  distractions  of  the  troubled 
times  through  which  they  were  passing.  They  still  had 
attention  to  bestow  on  the  wants  of  posterity ;  and  no 
men  better  understood  what  were  the  necessary  foun- 
dations for  the  permanent  well-being  of  a  com- 

Institnfion  of  .    ,  ,-p,,  .  ,  . 

a  college.       monwcalth.       ihe  seventh  year  since  the  trans- 
1G36.      portation  of  the  charter  had  iust  beerun,  when 

Oct.  28.      ^  .  ^ 

"  the  Court  agreed  to  give  four  hundred  pounds 
towards  a  school  or  college,  whereof  two  hundred  pounds 
to  be  paid  the  next  year,  and  two  hundred  pounds  when 
the  work  is  finished,  and  the  next  Court  to  appoint 
where  and  what  building." "  That  IMassachusetts  assem- 
bly, over  which  Henry  Vane  presided,  has  been  said  to 
be  "  the  first  body  in  which  the  people,  by  their  repre- 
sentatives, ever  gave  their  own  money  to  found  a  place 
of  education."  ^  Their  College  preceded  the  next  oldest 
in  British  America  (the  College  of  William  and  Mary  in 
Virginia)  by  more  than  fifty  years.  Provision  had  hardly 
been  made  for  the  first  wants  of  life,  —  habitations,  food, 
clothing,  and  churches.  Walls,  roads,  and  bridges  were 
yet  to  be  built.  The  power  of  England  stood  in  attitude 
to  strike.  A  desperate  war  with  the  natives  had  already 
begun,  and  the  government  was  threatened  with  an  Anti- 
nomian  insurrection.  Through  and  beyond  these  dark 
complications  of  the  present,  the  New-England  founders 
looked  to  great  necessities  of  future  times,  which  could 
not  be  provided  for  too  soon.'* 


1  Plym.  Col.  Rec,  I.  133.  See  houses,  provided  necessaries  for  our 
above,  p.  178.  livelihood,  reared  convenient  places  for 

2  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  I.  183.  God's    worship,   and   settled    the    civil 

3  Edward  Everett,  Speech  at  the  government,  one  of  the  first  things  we 
Celebration  in  1836,  in  Quincy's  His-  longed  for  and  looked  after  was  to 
tory  of  Harvard  University,  II.  654.  advance  learning  and  perpetuate  it  to 

4  "  After  God  had  carried  us  safe  to  posterity,  flreading  to  leave  an  illiterate 
New  England,  and  we  had  builded  our  ministry  to  the  churches,  when  our  pres- 


CiiAP.  XIIL] 


MASSACHUSETTS. 


The   appropriation   was  equivalent  to   the   colony 
.   a  year.     Regarded  in  that  point  of  view,   a  mill     . 
'  dollars  would  at  the  present  day   inadequately  repre- 
it.     Newtown  was  fixed  upon  for  the  site      1037. 
oi  the  College,^  and  a  committee  of  seven  Magis-    ^°''-  ^^• 
trates  and  six  ministers,  men  of  the  first  distinc- 
tion in  their  respective  classes,  were  directed  "  to 
take  order"  for  it.^      The  generous  project  engaged  the 
svmpathv  of  John  Harvard,  a  crraduate  of  Em- 

J        ^  J  '  °  .  ,    .-     ,  John  Har- 

manuel  College,  Cambridge,  who,  dymg  childless  vara. 
within  a  year  after  his  arrival  at  Charlestown,  be-      if-^s- 

.        .  .  Sept.  14. 

queathed  his  library  and  "  the  one  half  of  his  es- 
tate, it  being  in  all  about  seven  hundred  pounds,^  for  the 
erecting  of  the  College."     In  just  gratitude,  the       1039. 
Court  ordered  it  to  be  called  by  his  name.*    New- 
town had  just  before  received  the  name  of  Cambridge.^ 


Nov.  29. 


ent  ministers  should  lie  in  the  dust." 
(New  England's  First  Fruits,  12.) 

"  The  early  establishment  of  your  Col- 
lege," said  the  Marquis  Wellesley  to  a 
Massachusetts  man  in  India,  "  hastened 
the  American  Revolution  half  a  cen- 
tury." (Knapp,  Biographical  Sketches, 
&c.,  180.)  The  Governor-General  did 
not  know  how  far  short  this  came  of  the 
truth.  The  College,  for  more  than  its 
first  century,  did  not  a  little  to  preserve 
a  British  America  to  be  revolutionized. 

1  Mass,  Col.  Rec,  I.  208.  — This 
was  with  a  view,  says  Johnson,  — but 
perhaps  Johnson  did  not  know,  —  to 
securing  for  the  youth  "  the  orthodox 
and  soul-flourishing  ministery  of  Mr. 
Thomas  Shepheard."  (Wonderwork- 
ing Providence,  1G4.)  The  town  of 
Shepard's  ministry,  "  a  place  very  pleas- 
ant and  accommodate "  (New  Eng- 
land's First  Fruits,  12),  gave  two  acres 
and  two  thirds  of  land.  The  site,  a 
level  ground  on  a  river's  bank,  resem- 
bles the  sites  of  houses  of  religion  and 
education  in  England,  and  was  natu- 
rally recommended  by  that  association. 


2  Mass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  21 7. 

^  New  England's  First  Fruits,  in 
Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  I.  242  ;  comp.  Win- 
throp,  II.  87,  note  2.  The  statement  is 
ambiguous ;  and  the  amount  of  Har- 
vard's bequest  (that  is,  whether  the 
whole  or  the  half  of  his  property 
amounted  to  "  about  seven  hundred 
pounds")  is  not  ascertained  from  other 
sources.  The  question  is  discussed  by 
President  Quincy,  in  his  Aaluable  His- 
tory of  the  University  (I.  460,  &c.). 
The  library,  of  two  hundred  and  sixty 
volumes,  consisting  of  classical  and  pa- 
tristical  works,  as  well  as  modern  Avrit- 
ings  in  theology  and  general  literature, 
was,  with  the  building  containing  it, 
all  consumed  by  a  fire  in  1764,  with 
the  exception  of  a  single  volume.  This 
book,  so  precious  from  its  association 
with  the  founder,  is  John  Downame's 
"  Christian  Warfare  against  the  Devil," 
a  folio  volume  published  in  London 
in  1034,  three  years  before  Harvard's 
emigration. 

4  Mass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  153. 

5  Ibid.,  228  ;  comp.  180. 


550 


HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 


[Book  I. 


When  the  Indian  war  was   over,  and  the  movers   of 
sedition    had    been    quelled,    everything    within   Massa- 
chusetts began  to  wear  the  aspect  of  a  new  prosperity. 
The  vigor  of  the   rulers    had    in  England  inspired  con- 
fidence, and  no  fewer  than  three    thousand  set- 

1638.  .  1        1         rm 

tiers  came  over  m  three  months.  ihe  govern- 
ment was  indulgent  as  soon  as  it  was  safe ;  and  the  arms 
which  had  been  taken  from  nearly  a  hundred  excited 
persons  were  restored  to  as  many  of  them  as  re- 
mained in  the  colony  "  carrying  themselves  peace- 
ably." Probably  it  was  the  remembrance  of  the  recent 
alarm  that  caused  the  government  to  hesitate,  when 
"  divers  gentlemen  and  others,  out  of  their  care  of  the 
public  weal  and  safety  by  the  advancement  of  the 
military    art    and    exercise    of   arms,    desired    license    of 


1G39. 
Nov.  5. 


1  Winthrop,  I.  268.  Settlers  came, 
not  only  from  England,  but  from  Vir- 
ginia and  the  West  Indies.  "  Those 
countries,  for  all  their  great  wealth, 
have  sent  hither,  both  this  year  and 
formerly,  for  supply  of  clothes  and 
other  necessaries,  and  some  families 
have  forsaken  both  Providence,  and 
other  the  Caribbee  Islands  and  Vir- 
ginia, to  come  and  live  here 

Our  people  saw  what  meagre,  unhealth- 
ful  countenances  they  brought  hither, 
and  how  fat  and  well-liking  they  be- 
came soon."  (Ibid.,  331.)— In  1640, 
Winthrop  was  annoyed  "  by  divers 
letters  and  reports,  that  the  Lord  Say 
[with  \'iews  altered  by  the  new  career 
now  opened  to  him  in  England]  did 
labor,  by  disparaging  this  country,  to 
divert  men  from  coming  to  us,  and  so 
to  draw  them  to  the  West  Indies"; 
and  that  to  that  end  he,  and  his  asso- 
ciates in  the  project  of  a  plantation 
there,  "  finding  that  godly  men  were 
unwilling  to  come  under  other  governors 
than  such  as  they  should  make  choice 
of  themselves,  &c.,  condescended  to  ar- 
ticles somewhat  suitable  to  our  form  of 


government,    although   they    had    for- 
merly declared  themselves  much  against 
it,  and  for  a  mere  aristocracy,  and  an 
hereditary    magistracy    to    be    settled 
upon  some  great  persons,  &c."     W'in- 
throp  remonstrated  with  him  by  letter, 
and  "  showed  his  Lordship  how  evident 
it  was  that  God  had  chosen  this  coun- 
try to  plant  his  people  in,  and  therefore 
how   displeasing   it    would    be    to   the 
Lord,    and    dangerous    to   himself,    to 
hinder  this  work To  this  let- 
ter his  Lordship  returned  answer,  not 
denying    the    evidence   of  the    Lord's 
owning  the  work,  but  alleging  that  this 
was  a  place  appointed  only  for  a  pres- 
ent refuge,  &c.,  and  that,  a  better  place 
being    now   found    out,    we    were    all 
called   to   remove   thither."     (Ibid.,    I. 
333.)     "Many  sold  their  estates  here 
to  transport  themselves  to  Providence, 
among    whom     the     chief    was     John 
Ilumphroy,"  who  Avent  out  to  be  Gov- 
ernor.    (Ibid.,   331.)     But  the  scheme 
proved  a  failure.     The  island  was  soon 
after  taken  by  the  Spaniards,  and  most 
of  the  New-England  adventurers,  who 
could,  came  back. 


1  min- 
istration. 


Chap.  XIII.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  551 

the  Court  to  join  themselves  in  one  company,  and 
to  have  liberty  to  exercise  themselves  at  such  TheAncict 
times  as  their  occasions  would  best  permit."  ^  bH  Arti"uJ^ 
But,  for  the  present,  few  occasions  arose  for  any  ^""^p^^y- 
extraordinary  legislation ;  and  the  record  exhibits  for  the 
most  part  only  the  details  of  the  common  administra- 
tion, as  it  has  been  already  described,  varied  here  and 
there  with  the  introduction  of  some  improvement  in  the 
transaction  of  the  public  business,  or  by  some  action 
which  is  interesting  as  throwing  light  on  the  sentiments 
and  manners  of  the  time. 

As,  with  the  increase  of  population,  the  original  pro- 
visions became  inadequate  for  a  speedy  and  con-  progress  of 
venient  dispensation  of  justice,  courts  additional  "JfjXtion""' 
to  those  at  the  seat  of  government  were  estab-  andadn 
lished  at  Salem,   Ipswich,  and  Newtown ;  ~  and 
in  the  following  year,  to  the  end   of  bringing    May  n. 
legal  relief  near  to  every  man's  door,  other  tribu-      icss. 
nals,  for  the  determination   of  controversies   for    ^^''^^' 
small  amounts,  were  instituted  in  the  respective  towns.^ 
A  public  registration    of  births,  marriages,  and      ic39. 
deaths  ^  was  established,  as  well  as  that  excellent     ^^^^-  ^• 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  251.     "Divers  of  every  June,  according  to  ancient 
of  our   chief  military  officers   had  de-  usage,  it  parades  on  Boston  Common, 
clared  themselves  favorers  of  the  fami-  that  its  officers,  annually  chosen,  may 
listical  persons  and  opinions."     (Ibid.,  receive    their    commissions    from    the 
256.)      The    petition   of  the    "gentle-  Governor's  hands,  finds  himself  troubled 
men  and  others "  was  granted,  March  by  none  of  the   apprehensions  of  two 
13,  1639,  with  a  careful  proviso,  "that  hundred  and  twenty  years  ago,  when 
this  order  or  grant,  or  anything  therein  "  the    Council,    considering,   from    the 
contained,  shall  not  extend  to  free  the  example  of  the  Pretorian  Band  among 
said  company,  or   any  of  them,   their  the  Romans,  and  the  Templars  in  Eu- 
persons  or  estates,  from  the  civil  gov-  rope,  how   dangerous   it   might   be   to 
ernment  and  jurisdiction    here   estab-  erect  a  standing  authority  of  military 
lished."     This  company,  called  for  the  men,  which  might  easily  in  time  over- 
last  hundred  and  twenty  years  llie  An-  throw  the   civil   power,  thought  fit  to 
cient  and  Honorable  Artillery  Company,  stop  it  betimes."     (Winthrop,  I.  253.) 
is  the  oldest  corporation  existing  in  Mas-  2  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  I.  197. 
sachusetts,  except  the  College  and  a  few  3  Ibid.,  239. 
towns.      The  pleased  spectator   of  its  4  Ibid.,  276. 
proceedings,  when,  on  the  first  Monday 


552  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAKD.  [Book  L 

system  of  registration  of  deeds  and  of  testamentary  instru- 
ments which  has  rendered  the  conveyance  of  property  in 
New  England  so  safe.    A  rule  was  made  for  the  puhlication 
of  intentions  of  marriage.^    A  post-ofRce  for  for- 
eign correspondence  was  set  up.^     "  That  abom- 
inable practice  of  drinking  healths  "  was  forbidden,  under 
a  penalty  of  twelve  pence  for  each  offence,  as  being  "  a 
mere  useless  ceremony,"  and  "  also  an  occasion  of  much 
waste  of  the  good  creatures,  and  of  many  other  sins,  as 
drunkenness,  quarrelling,  bloodshed,  uncleanness, 
misspense  of  precious  time,  &c.,  which,  as  they 
ought  in  all  places  and  times  to  be  prevented  carefully, 
so  especially  in  plantations  of  churches  and  commonweals, 
wherein  the  least  known  evils  are  not  to  be  tolerated  by 
such  as  are  bound  by  solemn  covenant  to  walk  by  the 
rule  of  God's  word  in  all  their  conversation."  ^     Prohibi- 
tions,  addressed    to   both    possessor  and  purveyor,   were 
aimed  against  "  the  excessive  wearing  of  lace  and  other 
superfluities,  tending  to  little  use  or  benefit,  but 
to   the  nourishing   of  pride    and    exhausting  of 
men's  estates,  and  also  of  evil  example  to  others."  '^     To  a 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rcc,  I.  275.  also  the  ordinarywcaringof  silver,  gold, 

2  Ibid.,  281.  and  silk  laces,  girdles,  hat-bands,  &c."; 

3  Ibid.,  272  ;  comp.  Wlnthrop,  I.  324.  and  "ordered  that  no  person,  either 
This  was  a  great  point  with  Win-  man  or  woman,  should  hereafter  make 
throp,  whose  own  example  had  discoun-  or  buy  any  apparel,  either  woollen,  silk, 
tenanccd  the  practice.  or  linen,  with  any  lace  on  it,  silver, 

4  Mass.  Col.  Rcc,  I.  274.  The  con-  gold,  silk,  or  thread,  under  the  penalty 
templated  extirpation  included  other  of  forfeiture  of  such  clothes,  &c.;  also, 
enormities  of  the  same  kind,  as  "  short  that  no  person,  either  man  or  woman, 
sleeves,  whereby  the  nakedness  of  the  should  make  or  buy  any  slashed  clothes, 
arm  may  be  discovered  in  the  wearing  other  than  one  slash  in  each  sleeve, 
thereof,"  "  sleeves  more  than  half  an  and  another  in  the  back  ;  also  all  cut- 
cU  wide  in  the  widest  place  thereof,"  works,  embroidered  or  needlework 
"  imnioderate  great  breeches,  knots  of  caps,  bands,  and  rails,  were  forbidden 
ribbon,  broad  shoulder-bands  and  rails,  hereafter  to  be  made  and  worn,  under 
silk  rases,  double  ruffs  and  cuffs,  &c."  the  aforesaid  penalty;  also  all  gold  or 
(Ibid.)  A  law  of  the  same  character  had  silver  girdles,  hat-bands,  belts,  ruffs, 
been  passed  five  years  before,  Sept.  3,  beaver  hats,  are  prohibited  to  bo 
1634.  It  took  notice  of  the  appearance  bought  and  worn  hereafter,  under  the 
of "  some  new  and  immodest  fashions,  as  aforesaid    penalty,    &c."     "Men    and 


Chap.  Xm.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  553 

sentence  of  banishment  was  added  —  what,  however,  was 
no  novelty^  —  the  injunction  "to  return  no  more,  upon 
pain  of  death."  ~  William  Andrews,  for  having  "  con- 
spired against  the  life  of  his  master,  and  not  only  so,  but 
also  against  the  peace  and  Avelfare  of  the  whole  common- 
wealth, was  censured  to  be  severely  whipped,  and  deliv- 
ered up  as  a  slave  to  whom  the  Court  should  appoint."  ^ 
"  For  going  to  a  jury  and  pleading  with  them  out  of 
Court,"  Thomas  Lechford,  of  Lincoln's  Inn,  the  only  pro- 
fessional practitioner,  as  yet,  before  the  New-England 
tribunals,  was  "  debarred  from  pleading  any  man's  cause 
hereafter,  unless  his  own,  and  admonished  not  to  presume 
to  meddle  beyond  Avhat  he  should  be  called  to  by  the 
Court,"  and  "  not  to  meddle  with  controversies."  "* 

In  all  the  riper  business  of  organization  and  adminis- 
tration, as  well  as  in  its  first  stages,  the  orderly  and 
enlightened  genius  of  Winthrop  was  active.  Since  his 
restoration  to  the  chief  magistracy  from  the  inferior  place 
into  which  the  democratic  spasm  had  cast  him,  he  had 
continued  to  be  aided  by  his  former  counsellors.  In  each 
of  these  three  years  Dudley  held  the  second  office ;  and  all 
of  the  former  Assistants  who  remained  in  the  colony,  ex- 
cept Dummer,  retained  their  position  in  the  government. 

But  the  public  confidence  in  Winthrop,  so  well  merited 
and  generally  so  constant,  did  not  blind  the  electors  to 
the  danger  of  the  precedent  that  might  grow  out  of  a 
too  long  continuance  in  office  of  one  favorite  public  ser- 

women,"  however,  had  "  liberty  to  wear  i  See   above,   p.  457.      There  had 

out  such  apparel  as  they  were  now  pro-  been  still  other  instances, 

vided  of,  except  the  immoderate  great  2  Mass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  234. 

sleeves,    slashed    apparel,    immoderate  ^  Ibid.,  247.     This  was  a  sentence, 

great   rails,   long   wings,  &c."     (Ibid.,  after  conviction  of  crime,  to  confine- 

12G.)    Connecticut  adopted  similar  pro-  ment  and  labor  under  private  superin- 

visions,  though  less  stringent.     (Conn,  tendence,  instead  of  in  a  penitentiary, 

Col.  Rec,  I.  64.)     I  do  not  recollect  which  was  not  yet  provided.     (Comp. 

any  legislation   of  the   kind  either  at  ibid.,  284.)     Andrews  was  afterwards 

New  Haven  or  at  Plymouth.    Plymouth  "  released    upon    his    good    carriage." 

was  perhaps  too  poor  to  need  it,  New  (Ibid.,  269.) 

Haven  too  rich  to  like  it.  4  ibid.,  270,  310. 
VOL.  I.                                    4  7 


554  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

vant.  His  second  election  after  that  when  he  succeeded 
1C39.  Vane,  had  not  been  carried  with  universal  satis- 
May  22.  faction.  "  Somc  laboring  had  been,  by  some  of 
the  elders  and  others,  to  have  changed,  not  out  of  any  dis- 
like to  him,  for  they  all  loved  and  esteemed  him,  but  out 
of  their  fear  lest  it  might  make  way  for  having  a  Gov- 
ernor for  life,  which  some  had  propounded  as  most  agree- 
able to  God's  institution  and  the  practice  of  well-ordered 
states."  ^  The  same  jealousy  was  evinced  on  the  part  of 
the  freemen  when  Emmanuel  Downing,  the  Governor's 
brother-in-law,  was  nominated  by  the  Magistrates  to  be  an 
Assistant,  "  which  they  conceived  to  be  done  to  strengthen 
his  [the  Governor's]  party;  and  therefore,  though  he  were 
known  to  be  a  very  able  man,  &c.,  and  one  who  had  done 
many  good  offices  for  the  country  for  these  ten  years,  yet 
the  people  would  not  choose  him."  ^  Another  temporary 
cause  of  discontent  with  the  existing  administration  was, 
that  "  the  Court,  finding  the  number  of  Deputies  to  be 
much  increased  by  the  addition  of  new  plantations, 
Restriction  thought  fit,  for  thc  usc  both  of  the  country  and 
ofthenum-    ^|-^g  Court,  to  rcduco  all  towns  to  two  Deputies. 

ber  of  Depu-  '  ^  '• 

ties.  This  occasioned  some  to  fear  that  the  Magistrates 

intended  to  make  themselves  stronger  and  the  Deputies 
weaker,  and  so  in  time  to  bring  all  power  into  the  hands 
of  the  Magistrates."  "  By  force  of  reason,"  the  question 
about  the  number  of  Deputies  was  settled  to  the  general 
satisfaction ;  ^  and  for  forty  years  from  this  time  there  was 
a  uniform  delegation  of  two  representatives  from  every 
town  in  the  jurisdiction. 

The  aristocratical  element  of  the  society  had  been  ex- 
tended to  its  utmost  limit  in  the  institution  of  a  Council 

1  Winthrop,  I.  2!)9.     "One  of  the  the  practice  of  all  the  best  common- 
elders,  beinjT  present  with  those  of  his  wealths  in  Europe,  and  especially  that 
church,   when   they   were   to   prepare  of   Israel,  by    God's   own   ordinance." 
their  votes   for   the   election,  declared  (Ibid.,  301.) 
his  ju(l;iment  that  a  Governor  oupjht  to         ^  Ibid.,  300. 
be  for  his  life,  alleging  for  his  authority         ^  Ibid. 


Coun- 
for  Life. 


CiiAP.  XIIL]  MASSACHUSETTS.  555 

for  Life.^  Without  doubt,  that  measure  had  reference  to 
the  expected  immigration  of  some  men  of  high  rank ;  and, 
with  the  decline  of  this  expectation,  whatever  reason 
there  had  been  for  the  arrangement  was  done  away. 
It  had  never  enjoyed  the  popular  favor ;  and  only  three 
Counsellors  appear  ever  to  have  been  elected.  It  had 
been  in  force  but  three  years,  when,  at  the  Court  Restriction 
of  Elections,  the  Deputies  proposed  "  an  order  ^[j'J.!^"^ 

drawn    to    this    effect,    that no   person      i^gg. 

chosen  a  Counsellor  for  Life  should  have  any  ^^''y-- 
authority  as  a  Magistrate,  except  he  were  chosen  in  the 
annual  elections  to  one  of  the  places  of  magistracy  estab- 
lished by  the  patent."  The  Magistrates  concurred  in  the 
order,  after  an  alteration  of  its  phraseology,  bringing  it 
into  the  form  of  an  explanation,  instead  of  a  repeal,  of 
the  act.  "  That  which  led  those  of  the  Council  to  yield 
to  this  desire  of  the  Deputies  was  because  it  concerned 
themselves,  and  they  did  more  study  to  remove  these 
jealousies  out  of  the  people's  heads,  than  to  preserve  any 
power  or  dignity  to  themselves  above  others."^ 

After  the  third  year  of  Winthrop's  second  period  of  ser- 
vice as  Governor,  the  personal  question  relating  to  him  was 
disposed  of  in  the  best  way  possible,  as  things  stood,  both 
for  him  and  for  the  country.  Dudley  was  elected 
in  his  place, — "  a  man,"  says  his  magnanimous  pre-  ^^"^ 
decessor,  "  of  approved  wisdom  and  godliness,  and  ^^<^°"A  depo- 

•^  ^        .  "  sition  ofGov^ 

of  much  good  service  to  the  country ;  and  there-  cmor  win- 
fore  it  was  his  due  to  share  in  such  honor  and  eiect'i'onof 
benefit  as  the  country  had  to  bestow.    The  elders,  °"'^'''y- 
being  met  at  Boston  about  this  matter,  sent  some  of  their 
company  to  acquaint  the  old  Governor  with  their  desire, 
and  the  reasons  moving  them,  clearing  themselves  of  all 
dislike  of  his  government,  and  seriously  professing  their 
sincere  affections  and  respect  towards  him,  which  he  kindly 

1  See  above,  p.  441.  2  Winthrop,  I.  S02. 


1640. 
13. 


556  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

and  thankfully  accepted."^  In  the  new  election,  he  had 
the  satisfaction  of  seeing  still  better  evidence  of  the  public 
approbation  of  that  government  of  which  he  had  been 
the  head.  It  was  no  further  changed  than  by  the  pro- 
motion of  Dudley  and  Bellingham  each  one  step  in 
official  station,  while  he  himself  took  Bellingham's  place 
as  an  Assistant." 

In  the  second  period  of  Winthrop's  administration  of 
the  chief  magistracy,  yet  another  attempt  had  been  made 
—  the  final  one  for  the  present  —  to  get  possession  of  the 
charter  of  Massachusetts.     A  "  very  strict  order  " 
maiHifortho  cauio  froui  the  Commissioners  of  Plantations  for 
its  instant  transmission  to  England.^     The  Gen- 
eral Court,  after  a  pause  of  some  months,  "  agreed  that  a 
1C38.      letter  should  be  written  by  the  Governor  in  the 
Sept.  c.    name  of  the  Court,  to  excuse  our  not  sending  of 
it;  for  it  was  resolved  to  be  best  not  to  send  it,  because 
then  such  of  our   friends  and   others  in  England  would 
conceive   it   to    be    surrendered,   and   that    thereupon   we 
should  be  bound   to  receive  such  a  Governor  and   such 
orders    as    should   be    sent  to  us,  and  many  bad  minds, 
yea,  and  some  weak  ones,  among  ourselves,  would  think 
it   lawful,    if  not   necessary,   to   accept   a    General  Gov- 
ernor.   * 

1  Winthrop,  II.  3.  Winthrop  also  been  one  of  the  actors  and  sufferers  in 
expressed  "  his  unfeigned  desire  of  more  the  Antinomian  emeute. 
freedom,  that  he  might  a  little  intend  ^  Jt  may,  however,  be  mentioned  as 
his  private  occasions."  He  had  lost  a  fact,  which  possibly  had  some  rela- 
property,  and  become  embarrassed,  tion  to  this  rotation  in  office,  that  Win- 
through  the  roguery  of  his  bailiff,  throj),  nearly  a  year  before,  had  had 
Hearing  of  this,  some  of  the  towns  a  trilling  difference  with  Bellingham, 
made  voluntary  contributions  for  his  who  was  then  Treasurer.  (^Vinthrop, 
I'elief,  and  the  General  Court  gave  his  I.  320.) 

wife    three    thousand    acres    of   land.         3  Xhe   order,  dated  April  4,   1638, 

"  One    gentleman    of    Newbury,   ]\Ir.  is  in  Hubbard,   2G8,   and  in   Hazard, 

Richard   Dummer,   propounded   for   a  I.  432. 

supply   in   a  more   private  way,  and,         4  W^inthrop,  I.  2G9  ;   romp.   274. — 

for  example,  himself  disbursed  a  hun-  The  importance  of  the  Puritan  estabhsh- 

dred  pounds."     (Ibid.,  4.)     This  is  a  ment  in  New  England  had  by  this  time 

touching    incident,   for    Dummer    had  atti-acted  general  attention  in  the  par- 


Chap.  XIIL]  MASSACHUSETTS.  557 

Winthrop's  letter  addressed  to  the  Commissioners  for 
Plantations,  under  this  order,  is  a  document  worthy  of 
all   remembrance,   as    displaying    the    sj)irit   and 
policy  of  the  time.     It  begins  with  a  refusal  to  reply  to  mo 
transmit  the   patent,   expressed    in    the   form  of  chrner" 
a  petition  for  a  further  consideration  of  the  de- 
mand,  and   in    the    style   of  diplomatic  courtesy   appro- 
priate  to    such    communications.     It   declares,  that,  had 
notice   been  received  of  the    prosecution  under   the   quo 
warranto,  there  would  have  been  "  a  sufficient  plea  to  put 
in."     The  material  part  of  the  manifesto  then  follows :  — 

"  It  is  not  unknown  to  your  Lordships,  that  we  came 
into  these  remote  parts  with  his  Majesty's  license  and 
encouragement,  under  his  great  seal  of  England ;  and,  in 
the  confidence  we  had  of  the  great  assurance  of  his  favor, 
we  have  transported  our  families  and  estates,  and  here 
have  we  built  and  planted,  to  the  great  enlargement  and 
securing  of  his  Majesty's  dominions  in  these  parts,  so  as, 

ent  country.      In  "  this  present  year,  from  her  eyes,  to  behold  so  many  of 

1638,"     the     quidnunc     Sir    Simonds  her    cliildren    exposed    at    once,    and 

D'Ewes  understood  that  "their  nam-  tlirust  from  things  of  dearest  necessity, 

bcrs  there   did   now   amount  to  some  because  their  conscience  could  not  as- 

fifty  thousand,  and  most  of  them  truly  sent  to  things  which  the  bishojis  thought 

pious;  and  every  parish  supplied  with  indifferent  ?    What  more  binding  than 

such  able,  painful,  preaching  ministers,  conscience  ?    What  more  free  than  in- 

as  no  place  under  heaven  enjoys  the  differency?       Cruel,   then,   must   that 

like."     (Autobiography,  &c.,  II.    117,  indifferency  needs  be,  that   shall  vio- 

118.)    Three  years  later,  Milton  wrote :  late  the  strict  necessity  of  conscience  ; 

"  What  numbers  of  faithful  and  free-  merciless  and  inhuman  that  free  choice 

born  Englishmen  and  good  Christians  and  liberty,  that  shall  break  asunder 

have  been  constrained  to  forsake  their  the  bonds  of  religion  !    Let  the  astrolo- 

dearest   home,   their   friends   and  kin-  ger  be  dismayed  at  the  portentous  blaze 

dred,  whom  nothing  but  the  wide  ocean  of  comets,  and  impressions  in  the  air, 

and    the    savage    deserts    of  America  as  foretelling  troubles  and  changes  to 

could  hide  and  shelter  from  the  fury  states ;  I  shall  believe  there  cannot  be 

of  the   bishops  ?      O  sir,  if  we  could  a  more  ill-boding  sign  to  a  nation  —  God 

but  see  the  shape  of  our  dear  mother  turn  the  omen  from  us !  —  than  when 

England,  as  poets  are  wont  to  give  a  the   inhabitants,   to   avoid   insufferable 

personal  form  to  what  they  please,  how  grievances  at  home,   are  enforced  by 

would  she  appear,  think  ye,  but  in  a  heaps  to  forsake  their  native  country." 

mourning   weed,  with  ashes  upon  her  (Reformation  in  England,  Book  II.) 
head,    and    tears    abundantly    flowing 
47* 


558  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

if  our  patent  should  be  now  taken  from  ns,  we  should  be 
looked  at  as  runagates  and  outlaws,  and  shall  be  enforced 
either  to  remove  to  some  other  place,  or  to  return  to  our 
native  country  again,  either  of  which  will  put  us  to  insu- 
perable extremities;  and  these  evils  (among  others)  will 
necessarily  follow  :  — 

"  1.  Many  thousand  souls  will  be  exposed  to  ruin, 
being  laid  open  to  the  injuries  of  all  men. 

"  2.  If  we  be  forced  to  desert  the  place,  the  rest  of 
the  plantations  about  us  (being  too  weak  to  subsist 
alonej  will  for  the  most  part  dissolve  and  go  along 
with  us,  and  then  will  this  whole  country  fall  into  the 
hands  of  French  or  Dutch,  who  would  speedily  embrace 
such  an  opportunity. 

"  3.  If  we  should  lose  all  our  labor  and  cost,  and  be 
deprived  of  those  liberties  which  his  Majesty  hath  granted 
us,  and  nothing  laid  to  our  charge,  nor  any  failing  to  be 
found  in  us  in  point  of  allegiance,  (which  all  our  country- 
men do  take  notice  of,  and  do  justify  our  faithfulness  in 
this  behalf,)  it  will  discourage  all  men  hereafter  from  the 
like  undertakings,  upon  confidence  of  his  Majesty's  royal 
grant. 

"  4.  Lastly,  if  our  patent  be  taken  from  us,  (whereby 
we  suppose  we  may  claim  interest  in  his  Majesty's  favor 
and  protection,)  the  common  people  here  will  conceive 
that  his  Majesty  hath  cast  them  off,  and  that  hereby  they 
are  freed  from  their  allegiance  and  subjection,  and  there- 
upon will  be  ready  to  confederate  themselves  under  a  new 
government,  for  their  necessary  safety  and  subsistence, 
which  will  be  of  dangerous  example  unto  other  planta- 
tions, and  perilous  to  ourselves  of  incurring  his  Majesty's 
displeasure,  which  we  would  by  all  means  avoid."  ^ 

1  Hubbard,  History,  269,  270.  Hub-  -where  it  is  still  preserved.  The  scarce- 
bard,  from  whom  Hazard  copied,  (I.  ly  covert  threats  contained  in  it  were 
435,  436,)  printed  this  paper  from  the  suited  to  have  effect,  not  only  on  the 
original  in  the  Massachusetts  archives,  temper  of  the  imperilled  government 


Chap.  XIII.] 


MASSACHUSETTS. 


559 


Here,  after  a  little  more  empty  threatening  from  the 
Commissioners/  the  business  slept  for  the  present.  There 
was  more  serious  matter  for  concern  nearer  home.  The 
Scots  were  in  arms.  Hutchinson  thought  that,  if  the 
settlers  in  Massachusetts  had  now  been  pushed  to  ex- 
tremity, "  it  is  pretty  certain  the  body  of  the  people 
would  have  left  the  country,"  either  betaking  themselves 
to  the  Dutch  on  Hudson's  River,  or  seeking  some  unoc- 
cupied spot  out  of  the  reach  of  any  European  power.^ 
But  a  combination  with  the  Dutch,  while  it  would  have 
secured  their  liberty  of  worship,  might  not  even  have 
involved  a  necessity  for  their  change  of  residence.  As 
things  stood,  the  great  maritime  power  of  the  United 
Provinces,  had  it  been  engaged  to  come  in  aid  of  what 
they  could  do  for  themselves,  might  fairly  be  supposed 
competent  to  protect  them  in  their  Massachusetts  homes. 


at  home,  but  on  further  machinations 
of  Gorges,  who,  however  some  of  his 
interests  might  clash  with  those  of  the 
chief  adjacent  colony,  could  not  but 
contemplate  the  probable  contingencies 
which  might  make  him  desire  its  pro- 
tection for  his  domain  against  his  French 
neighbors  on  the  other  border.  See 
Thomas  Gorges's  letter  in  Hutchinson's 
Collection,  &c.,  114. 

1  "  The  Governor  [May  6,  163D]  re- 
ceived letters  from  Mr.  Cradock,  and  in 
them  another  order  from  the  lords  com- 
missioners, to  this  effect :  That,  whereas 
they  had  received  our  petition  upon 
their  former  order,  etc.,  by  which  they 
perceived  that  we  were  taken  with 
some  jealousies  and  fears  of  their  in- 
tentions, etc.,  they  did  accept  of  our 
answer,  and  did  now  declare  their  in- 
tentions to  be  only  to  regulate  all  plan- 
tations to  be  subordinate  to  the  said 
Commission ;  and  that  they  meant  to 
continue  our  liberties,  etc.,  and  there- 
fore did  now  again  peremptorily  require 
the  Governor  to  send  them  our  patent 
by  the  first  ship ;  and  that  in  the  mean 


time  they  did  give  us,  by  that  order, 
full  power  to  go  on  in  the  government 
of  the  people  until  we  had  a  new  patent 
sent  us ;  and,  withal,  they  added  threats 
of  further  course  to  be  taken  with  us,  if 
we  failed.  This  order  being  imparted 
to  the  next  General  Court,  some  advised 
to  return  answer  to  it.  Others  thought 
fitter  to  make  no  answer  at  all,  because, 
being  sent  in  a  private  letter,  and  not 
delivered  by  a  certain  messenger,  as 
the  former  order  was,  they  could  not 
proceed  upon  it,  because  they  could 
not  have  any  proof  that  it  was  delivered 
to  the  Governor  ;  and  order  was  taken, 
that  Mr.  Cradock's  agent,  who  delivered 
the  letter  to  the  agent,  etc.,  should,  in 
his  letters  to  his  master,  make  no  men- 
tion of  the  letters  he  delivered  to  the 
Governor,  seeing  his  master  had  not 
laid  any  charge  upon  him  to  that  end." 
(Wintlirop,  I.  298,  299.) 

2  History,  I.  86,  87.  —  "  If  the  earth 
will  not  help  the  woman,  let  her  go 
into  another  wilderness."  Such  was 
the  language  of  the  times,  borrowed 
from  Rev.  xii.  6,  14,  16. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

It  was  while  events  were  ripening  for  the  overthrow  of 
the  English  throne  and  church,  that  the  ten  years  had 
passed  since  the  arrival  of  Winthrop's  company  in  Massa- 
chusetts Bay.  From  the  time  of  the  dissolution  of  his 
third  Parliament,  King  Charles  had  ruled  with  absolute 
authority.      After   reducing    his    expenses   by   a 

Despotism  *^  ,  .  . 

of  Charles  suddcu  aud  inglorious  peace  with  both  France 
and  Spain,  still  he  wanted  money,  which  he  pro- 
ceeded to  raise  by  illegal  impositions.  Duties  on  im- 
ported merchandise  were  exacted,  in  contempt  of  the 
denial  of  a  Parliamentary  grant ;  and  customs  were  levied, 
unknown  to  former  practice.  Compositions  with  Papists 
for  breaches  of  the  laws  became  a  permanent  resource  of 
the  exchequer.  Titles  to  crown  lands  anciently  alienated 
by  the  crown  were  scrutinized,  and,  on  pretence  of  some 
defect,  fines  were  extorted  from  the  possessors.  A  law, 
long  obsolete,  had  required  landholders  to  the  amount  of 
twenty  pounds'  yearly  rent  to  receive  knighthood  when 
summoned  for  that  purpose ;  Charles  so  far  revived  it  as 
to  oblige  all  persons  with  twice  that  rental  to  buy  a  re- 
lease from  the  liability.  The  charter  of  London  was  de- 
clared forfeit,  for  some  alleged  irregularity  of  administra- 
tion ;  and  the  city  only  saved  its  legal  existence  by  the 
payment  of  a  fine  of  seventy  thousand  pounds.  In  other 
quarters  enormous  mulcts  were  exacted  by  the  Star-Chamber 
Court,  on  various  pretexts.  Monopolies  were  sold  for  the 
manufacture  and  vending  of  necessary  articles.^     Custom- 

^  "  Salt,    starch,    coals,    iron,   -wine,     lace,  meat  dressed  in  taverns  (the  vint- 
pens,  cards,  dice,  beavers,  belts,  bone-    ners  of  London  gave  the  king  £  6,000 


Chap.  XIV.]  PURITAN  POLITICS  IN  ENGLAND.  561 

house  officers  were  empowered  to  search  warehouses  and 
dwellings.  An  early  practice  of  requiring  seaport  towns 
to  furnish  vessels  for  the  king's  service  —  which  was  the 
same  thing  as  for  their  own  protection  —  had,  for  the  con- 
venience of  both  parties,  led  to  a  pecuniary  com-  Exaction  of 
mutation  by  what  was  called  Ship-money.  The  s'''p-'""°pj'- 
sovereign's  right  in  respect  to  it  had  never  received  any 
stricter  definition  than  was  furnished  by  the  obvious  con- 
ditions of  the  case.  Profiting  by  this  vagueness,  1034. 
Charles  assessed  ship-money  on  the  whole  king-  O'^'"''^'"- 
dom.  By  a  fiction  of  state,  the  central  counties  were 
held  to  bound  upon  the  Channel,  and  Derbyshire  and 
Oxford  were  summoned  to  pay  coin  in  the  place  of  a 
despatch  of  squadrons  from  their  docks. 

The  spirit  of  Englishmen  was  not  broken  down  to  an 
acquiescence  in  the  encroachments  of  prerogative.  But 
where  to  find  means  of  redress?  There  was  no  Parlia- 
ment to  provide  new  securities  for  the  violated  or  threat- 
ened liberties  of  the  subject.  There  were  no  honest 
tribunals  to  give  him  the  benefit  of  those  securities  which 
were  his  by  ancient  law.  Prostitute  officials  did  thor- 
oughly the  work  of  an  insolent  court.  The  twelve  judges 
endeavored  to  forestall  public  opinion  by  an  extra-judicial 

for  freedom  from  this  horrible  imposi-  pollers  of  the  people.     Like  the  frogs 

tion),  tobacco,  wine-casks,  game,  brew-  of  Egypt,  they  have  gotten  the  posses- 

ing  and  distilling,  lamprons,  weighing  sion   of  our   dwellings,   and   we   have 

of  hay  and  straw  in  London,  gauging  scarce  a  room  free  from  them.     They 

of  red  herrings,  butter<'asks,  kelp  and  sup  in  our  cup,  they  dip  in  our  dish, 

seaweed,  linen  cloth,  rags,  hops,  but-  they  sit  by  our  fire.     We  find  them  in 

tons,  hats,  gut-string,  spectacles,  combs,  the   dye-fat,    the   wash-bowl,   and   the 

tobacco-pipes,  sedan  chairs,  and  hack-  powdering-tub.      They  share   with  the 

ney-coaches  (now  first  invented),  salt-  butler  in  his  box.     They  have  marked 

petre,  gunpowder,  down  to  the  privl-  and  sealed  us  from  head  to  foot.     ]\Ir. 

lege  of  gathering  rags  exclusively,  —  all  Speaker,  they  will  not  bate  us  a  pin. 

these  things  were  subject  to  monopolies,  "VVe   may  not    buy  our    own    clothes 

and  all  heavily  taxed."     (John  Forster,  without  their  brokage."     (Ibid.,  64 ;  a 

Historical  and  Biographical  Essays,  I.  quotation  from  a  speech  of  Culpepper, 

59.)  —  "  It  is  a  nest  of  wasps,  or  swarm  —  afterwards  King  Charles's  Chancel- 

of  vermin,   which  have  overcrept  the  lor  of  the  Exchequer,  —  at  the  opening 

land,  —  I   mean   the   monoiwlers  and  of  the  Long  Parliament.) 


562  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

argument  of  their  own  in  favor  of  the  legality  of  ship- 
money.  Some  men  of  fortune  and  consequence,  among 
whom  were  Lord  Say  and  Sele,  William  Vassall,  and 
John  Hamj)den,  were  resolved  to  bring  the  question  to 
a  trial.  The  case  of  Hampden,  who  was  assessed  twenty 
shillings  on  a  small  property  of  his  in  a  parish  of  Buck- 
inghamshire, chanced  to  stand  first  of  the  three 

1G37 

on  the  docket.  The  Attorney-General  and  So- 
licitor-General argued  for  the  crown  ;  the  Sergeants  St. 
John  and  Holborne  were  of  counsel  for  Hampden.  Finch, 
the  infamous  Chief  Justice  of  the  Common  Pleas,  and  six 
other  judges,  agreed  in  a  judgment  for  the  king.  Bramp- 
ston  and  Davenport,  the  heads  respectively  of  the  Courts 
of  King's  Bench  and  of  Exchequer,  gave  a  qualified  opin- 
ion of  the  same  tenor.  The  remaining  three  dissented, 
notwithstanding  their  discreditable  committal  of  themselves 
before  the  trial.  A  decision,  accompanied  with  all  the 
solemnities,  had  been  pronounced  by  the  highest  English 
tribunal.  If  it  was  necessarily  good  English  law,  then 
had  the  king  of  England  the  unlimited  power  of  the 
purse,  as  well  as  of  the  sword. 

The  abuses  of  ecclesiastical  authority  were  not  less 
exasperating  and  intolerable.  William  Laud,  who,  from 
the  time  of  the  sequestration  of  the  indulgent  Arch- 
bishop Abbot,  had  been  virtually  at  the  head  of  church 
affairs,  was  able,  when,  on  the  death  of  that  prelate, 
he   succeeded    to   the   primacy,  to    pursue  with 

Archbishop  _  •*-      _  •'  '■ 

Laud.  increasing  facility  his  arbitrary  course.  He  was 
^^^^'  united  in  strict  intimacy  and  harmonious  policy 
Avith  Thomas  Wentworth,  now  Earl  of  Strafford  and 
President  of  the  Council  of  York,  —  before  which  tribu- 
nal the  northern  counties  were  placed  out  of  the  protec- 
tion of  the  courts  in  Westminster  Hall ;  and  the  friends 
dedicated  their  joint  forces  to  the  ambition  of  the  mon- 
arch and  the  subjugation  of  the  realm.  Laud's  special 
province  lay  in  the  enforcement   of  severe  laws  of  uni- 


Chap.  XIV.]  TURITAN  TOLITICS   IN  ENGLAND.  563 

formity,  which  his  moderate  predecessor  had  suffered  to 
go  into  neglect,  and  of  new  ecclesiastical  ceremonies  of 
his  own  device ;  in  the  exaltation  of  the  sacerdotal  char- 
acter and  power,  and  of  the  authority  of  the  fathers 
of  the  early  Church ;  ^  and  in  the  prohibition  of  the 
preaching  of  the  doctrines  of  the  Genevan  Reformer. 
A  few  specimens  of  his  administration  may  indicate  its 
general  tone. 

One  Lilburne  was  arraigned  before  the  Star-Chamber 
Court  for  publishing  seditious  writings.     Refusing  to  an- 
swer on  oath  certain  interrogatories  designed  to  make  him 
criminate  himself,  he  was  punished  for  contempt  by  being 
whipped-  and  set  in  the  pillory.     From  that  stage 
he  addressed  the  by-standers,  and  scattered  pam- 
phlets   among    them,    for    which    new    offence    he    was 
gagged,  and  imprisoned  in  irons.^      A  book  of  a  thou- 
sand   pages  in    quarto,    against   the   amusements   of  the 
theatre  and   the  ball-room,  written  by  William  Prynne, 
a   barrister,  had   been  licensed  for   publication   by   Ab- 
bot's   chaplain,^      It    came    to    Laud's    knowledge,    who 
thought  he  detected  in  it  some  allusion  to  the  king  and 
queen.     He  certainly  might  have  read  in  it  some  sharp 
animadversions  on  the  hierarchy,  and  on  his  own  recent 
innovations  in  the   ritual ;    and  at  his    instance      J634. 
Prynne  was  sentenced  by  the  Star-Chamber  Court     ^^^- ''' 
to  be  degraded  from  the  bar,  to  stand  in  the  pillory  at 
two   places  in   London    and  lose  an  ear  at  each,  to   be 
branded  on  the  forehead,  to  pay  a  fine  of  five  thousand 

1  It  is  now  known  —  what  at  the  time  was  informed,  but  perhaps  without  good 
could  only  be  surmised  —  that  negotia-  authority  —  Laud,  with  other  prelates, 
tions  were  carried  on  by  Windebank,  was  prepared  to  be  a  party.  See  Hal- 
Secretary  of  State,  and  Cottington,  lam,  Constitutional  History,  &c.,  Chap. 
First  Lord  of  the  Treasury,  with  Pan-  VIII. 

zani,  the  Papal  nuncio  in  London,  for  2  Rushworth,    Collections,    &c.,    II. 

a  reconciliation  of  the  English  Church  4G6. 

with  that  of  Rome,  and  the  acknowledg-  3  it  -was  entitled  "  Histrio-Mastix,  the 

ment  of  a  sort  of  supremacy  of  the  Holy  Players'  Scourge,  or  Actors'  Tragedie," 

See ;  a  measure  to  which  —  as  Panzani  &c. 


564  insTor.Y  of  new  England.  [Book  i. 

pounds,    and    to   be   imprisoned   for   life.*      Prynne   em- 
ployed his   prison  leisure  in  another  essay  of  the  same 
kind,  for   which    he    had    to   submit    his   ears    a    second 
JC37.      time  to  the  hangman's  knife,  to  be  branded  on 
June  14.    ]jQ^\^  cheeks,  and  to  pay  another  fine  of  the  same 
amount.     Burton,    a    clergyman,    and    Bastwick,    a  phy- 
sician, both  men  of  honorable  repute,  now  suffered  with 
him  the  same  mutilation  and  fine,  for  what  were  called 
schismatical  libels  upon  the  ritual  and  government  of  the 
1(^30.      Church."      Leighton,  a  Scotchman,    for   a   simi- 
Noven.ber.  jg^j.  offencc,  was  sentenced  to  be  severely  whijDped 
twice,  to  be  set  in  the  pillory,  to  have  his  nose  slit,  his 
cheeks  branded,  and  his  ears  cut  ofi",  and  then  to  be  im- 
prisoned  for    life.^     A  person    named   Allinson, 

1C34. 

convicted  of  reporting  that  the  Archbishop  of 
York  had  solicited  the  king  for  some  toleration  to  the 
Catholics,  was  fined  a  thousand  pounds,  whipped,  set  in 
the  pillory  in  four  different  towns,  and  bound  to  good 
behavior  for  life.'' 

Laud  aimed  at  a  higher  quarry.  Williams,  Bishop  of 
Lincoln,  formerly  Lord  Keeper,  had  abandoned  his  arbi- 
trary principles,  and  provoked  the  displeasure  of  the  pri- 
mate, whose  early  patron  he  had  been.  On  some  trifling 
1C37.  pretence  that  he  had  attempted  to  suborn  evi- 
Juiy.  clence,  he  was  sentenced  in  the  Star-Chamber 
Court  to  suspension  from  his  episcopal  duties,  to  a  fine  of 
ten  thousand  pounds,  and  to  committal  to  the  Tower  dur- 
ing the  king  s  pleasure.'^  The  officers  employed  to  levy 
the  fine  found  in  Williams's  house  some  letters,  thrown 
by  as  waste-paper.  One  of  them,  addressed  to  him  by 
the  master  of  Westminster  School,  contained  references 
to  "  a  little  hocus-pocus,"  and  "  a  little  urchin."  On  the 
presumption  that  this  language  denoted  Laud,  the  Bishop 

1  Rushworth,    Collectiona,    &c.,     II.         3  Ibid.,  57. 
220-233.  ^  Ibid.,  26!). 

2  Ibid.,  382.  5  Ibid.,  416  -  449. 


Chap.  XIV.]  PURITAN  POLITICS  IN  ENGLAND.  565 

was  sentenced  to  pay  eight  thousand  pounds  more,  and 
the  writer  of  the  letter  ten  thousand  pounds,  1039. 
besides  having  his  ears  nailed  to  a  pillory  set  ^«''''"*'7- 
up  in  front  of  his  school,  and  then  being  imprisoned 
during  the  king's  pleasure.^  Impudent  abuses  of  the 
criminal  law  were  paraded  to  the  view  of  all  classes  of 
Englishmen,  to  break  them  down  by  terror  into  uncon- 
ditional submission  to  the  arbitrary  will  of  courtiers,  and 
so  to  the  ulterior  despotic  projects  of  the  court. 

As  yet  there  had  been  no  effectual  check  to  the  down- 
ward tendency  of  things.  Without  the  combination  of  a 
Parliament,  the  patriotic  party  was  powerless  against  the 
parasites  of  the  council-chamber,  the  tribunals,  and  the 
Church,  and  against  the  "divinity  doth  hedge  a  king." 
There  remained  only  the  hope  that  an  exchequer  still 
unprovided,  after  all  the  illegal  expedients  that  had  been 
used,  would  sooner  or  later  compel  the  infatuated  mon- 
arch to  convene  the  estates  of  his  realm.  But  the  hope, 
long  deferred,  had  as  yet  little  to  reanimate  it,  when  an 
event  occurred,  but  for  which,  in  the  opinion  of  wise 
j  udges,  the  liberties  of  Englishmen  might  for  an  indefinite 
period  have  remained  prostrate  on  their  own  soil." 

No  object  was  nearer  to  the  hearts  of  the  king  and  the 
Archbishop  than  to  establish  the  episcopal  hierarchy  and 
ritual  in  Scotland,  in  uniformity  with  the  system  of  the 
southern  kingdom,  and  to  the  exclusion  of  the  outbreak  at 
Presbyterian   order,  which   had  been  rooted  in  Edinburgii. 
Scotland    since    the    time    of    John    Knox.      It    is    not 
within  the  purpose  of  this  work  to  rehearse  the  meas- 
ures which  had  been  pursued  with  that  aim.     The  day 
arrived  on  which  a  liturgy,  prepared  by  Laud  and  other 
prelates,  and  only  differing  from  the  English  ser-      1637, 
vice-book  in  a  nearer  resemblance  to  the  Romish    •'"'>■  2^- 
missal,  was  appointed  to  be  used  in   the  great  church 

1  Rushworth,    Collections,    &c.,   11.         2  Hume.  Chap.  LITL ;  Hallam,  Con- 
803-817.  stitutional  History,  Chap.  VIII. 

VOL.  I.  48 


566  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

of  St.  Giles  in  Edinburgh.  The  vast  space,  now  divided 
among  four  churches,  was  filled  with  anxious  and  angry 
men  and  women.  The  Chancellor  and  others  of  the 
Privy  Council,  the  two  archbishops  and  other  bishops  of 
Scotland,  the  dignitaries  of  the  law,  and  the  magistrates 
of  Edinburgh,  were  present  in  their  robes.  The  Dean  of 
St.  Giles's  began  the  service.  Instantly  an  outcry  arose 
about  the  mass,  the  Pope,  and  Antichrist.  A  woman, 
Jenny  Geddes  by  name,  threw  a  stool  at  the  Dean's 
head,^  which  scarcely  missed  him.  A  shower  of  stones 
and  cudgels  followed.  The  Bishop  of  Edinburgh  mount- 
ed the  pulpit,  but  could  get  no  hearing.  The  magistrates, 
commanded  by  the  chancellor  to  interpose,  succeeded  in 
ejecting  the  most  noisy  of  the  rioters.  But  the  service 
was  with  difficulty  concluded,  amidst  the  hooting  of  those 
within,  and  the  breaking  of  windows  from  the  street ; 
and  the  prelates  were  reviled  and  pelted  as  they  passed  on 
foot  from  the  church,  —  the  Bishop  of  Edinburgh,  it  was 
said,  being  placed  in  peril  of  his  life.  The  Lord  Privy 
Seal,  who,  later  in  the  day,  conveyed  the  Bishop  in  his 
coach,  was  scarcely  protected  by  a  party  of  armed  ser- 
vants. 

Though  as  yet  there  was  no  proof  that  any  persons 
of  consequence  had  patronized  this  violence,  the  court 
thought  it  unsafe  to  repeat  the  experiment  till  the  temper 
of  Scotland  should  be  ascertained  and  soothed.  But  as 
time  passed,  and  credible  indications  showed  that  the 
delay  was  only  for  the  advantage  of  better  opportunity, 

1  Such  is  tho  commonly  received  if  not  lost."  (Larfje  Declaration  con- 
version of  the  story.  The  king,  how-  cerning  the  Late  Tumults  in  Scotland, 
ever,  says  that  it  was  a  mitred  head  &c.,  23.)  Chambers  says,  in  one  work 
■which  was  the  mark  of  this  famous  (History  of  Scotland,  Vol.  II.  Chap, 
missile.  "  If  a  stool,  aimed  to  be  II.),  that  the  person  so  irreverently 
thrown  at  him  [the  Bishop  of  Edin-  treated  was  the  Bishop  of  Edinburgh: 
burgh],  had  not,  by  the  providence  of  in  another  (History  of  Rebellions,  &c., 
God,  been  diverted  by  the  hand  of  Chap.  HI.),  that  it  was  the  Dean  of 
one  present,  the  life  of  that  reverend  St.  Giles's. 
Bishop had  been  endangered. 


Chap.  XIV.]  PURITAN  POLITICS  IN  ENGLAND.  567 

the  excitement  was  renewed,  and  now  manifested  itself 
over  a  wider  extent  and  in  a  more  elevated  sphere.  There 
was  a  great  resort  to  Edinbnrgh.  The  populace,  spread  of  the 
in  chase  of  the  Bishop  of  Galloway,  clamored  at  irscoUMd. 
the  door  of  the  chamber  where  the  Privy  Council  October. 
were  met,  and  threatened  to  force  an  entrance;  and  the 
City  Council  had  to  apply  to  some  popular  noblemen  for 
protection.  Petitions  began  to  come  in,  each  set  bearing 
signatures  of  more  consideration  than  the  last. 

The  king's  fierce  obstinacy,  or  evil  fate,  made  him  im- 
movable against  the  representations  urged  by  his  own 
creatures  as  to  the  critical  state  of  affairs ;  and  before 
long  he  had  to  hear  that  an  extra-constitutional  gov- 
ernment was  set  up,  consisting  of  four  houses,  called 
The  Tables.  They  w^ere  composed  respectively  of  nobles, 
of  gentry,  of  clergymen,  and  of  burgesses.  The  move- 
ment was  no  longer  an  aimless  tumult  of  "  base  and 
unruly  people " ;  ^  it  was  henceforward  to  be  conducted 
with  equal  dignity,  order,  address,  and  energy.  The 
"  Covenant "  —  the  first  fruit  of  the  new  combination  — 
w^as  subscribed  with  enthusiasm  by   persons   of 

''      ^  .  1638. 

both  sexes  and  all  ranks  throughout  the  king- 
dom. Crowds  pressed  into  the  churchyards  of  Edinburgh 
and  Glasgow,  to  affix  their  names  to  it  in  characters 
traced  with  their  blood  on  parchment  spread  out  upon 
gravestones.  It  bound  them  together  "  until  death,"  in 
resistance  to  religious  usurpation. 

The  mining  and  countermining  of  state  contests  suc- 
ceeded ;  —  reluctant,  insufficient,  and  suspected  conces- 
sions on  the  king's  part,  more  comprehensive  and  reso- 
lute demands    on    the   other.     At  length  his  malignant 

1  "  These  base   and  unruly  people,  Balaam's  ass,  to  the  upbraiding  of  all 

•who  were  so  much  out  in  their  first  the  rest  of  the  land,  when  they  should 

act  of  rebellion, though  they  have  cried  and  brayed  as  they  did." 

were  but  asses,  yet  they  were  cried  up  (King  Charles,  Large  Declaration,  &c., 

for   having   their   mouths    opened   im-  31.) 
mediately   by  God,  as  the   mouth   of 


568  HISTOKY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

star  led  him  to  the  North,  to  chastise  the  insolent  re- 
1639.  bellion.  In  his  army,  of  twenty  thousand  foot 
Advance  of  and  three  thousand  horse,-^  there  was  a  halting 
ln''a''rn,y  to''' affection  for  tlio  cause,  and  accordingly  little 
Scotland.  Stomach  for  the  fight.  It  was  no  mercenary 
host,  but  composed  of  men  who,  from  high  to  low, 
had  been  outraged  by  the  tyrannical  conduct  of  the 
reign.  The  king  had  not  taken  the  rebels  by  surprise. 
The  Scottish  general,  Alexander  Leslie,  an  experienced 
soldier  of  the  Continental  wars,  met  him  with  a  hasty 
levy,  but  one  scarcely  less  numerous  than  his  own,  —  in- 
spired with  an  ardor  of  purpose  which  was  wholly 
wanting  to  the  royal  troops,^  and  officered  by  veterans 
who  had  learned  their  art  under  Gustavus  Adolphus, 
and  whom  the  danger  of  their  country  had  now  called 
home.  After  some  bloodless  manoeuvring,  in  which 
the  king  had  the  worst,  he  granted  the  insurgents  a 
"  pacification " ;  rather,  we  should  say,  they 
granted  it  to  him,  for,  with  all  their  excite- 
ment, they  had  leaders  capable  of  seeing,  that,  at  this 
juncture,  moderation  on  their  part  was  policy. 

Returning  to  London,  the  king  at  once  found  cause 
to  revise  the  decision  to  which  the  manifold   perplexi- 


1  This  is  Hume's  estimate,  in  Chap,  reconciled  to  such  a  sovereign  ?  "  (Duke 
Lin.  According  to  Clarendon  (Book  of  Argyll,  Presbytery  Examined,  an 
II.)  the  force  consisted  of  about  twelve  Essay  Critical  and  Historical  on  the 
thousand  men,  half  of  them  cavalry.  Ecclesiastical  History  of  Scotland,  1G8. 

2  "  It  was  an  army  full  of  ministers  — My  subject  does  not  involve  a  retiu- 
of  religion,  accoutred  with  swords  and  ??)e'of  the  religious  politics  of  Scotland, 
pistols;  an  army  which  assembled,  at  But  I  cannot  refrain  from  professing 
i)eat  of  drum,  to  engage  in  prayer ;  an  my  obligations  to  a  treatise,  of  which 
army  which  was  within  itself  a  church,  the  reader  hesitates  whether  most  to 
of  which  every  corps  possessed  a  presby-  admire  the  thorough  knowledge,  the 
tery,  —  and  whose  regiments  were  rep-  sagacious  discrimination,  or  the  gen- 
resented  in  a  General  Assembly  ;  an  erous  and  religious  tone.  Such  calm 
armv  encamped  under  a  forest  of  ban-  and  wise  surveys  of  an  excited  period 
ners,  on  each  of  which  was  written  in  are  among  the  gems  of  historical  htera- 
golden    letters,   '  For    Christ's    Crown  ture.) 

and  Covenant.'     Could  such  men  be 


Chap.  XIV.]  PURITAN  POLITICS   IN  ENGLAND.  569 

ties  of  the  hour  had  brought  him,  for  the  dismission 
of  his  array.  The  Parliament  and  the  General  Proceedings 
Assembly  of  the  northern  kingdom,  which  had  °^l^'^,^^°^' 
been   convened   agreeably   to   a  stipulation  with  "lentand 

^  •'       .  ^\  Assembly. 

its  army,  proved  contumacious.  The  Assembly 
voted  that  episcopacy  was  unlawful  in  Scot- 
land, that  the  Church  canons  and  liturgy  w^ere  Popish, 
and  that  the  High-Commission  Court  was  a  tyranny ; 
decisions  which  only  a  speedy  prorogation  prevented  the 
Parliament  from  confirming.  Again  the  bewildered  mon- 
arch concluded  that  he  must  have  recourse  to  arms. 
But,  the  second  time,  it  required  to  be  done  under  more 
painful  conditions.  The  recent  fruitless  expedition  had 
exhausted  the  scanty  accumulation  of  past  years.  The 
illegal  methods  of  obtaining  revenue  had  proved  insuf- 
ficiently productive,  and  to  strain  the  prerogative  fur- 
ther at  such  a  time  of  general  discontent  was  too  perilous. 
There  remained  no  resource  but  the  dreaded  one  of  con- 
voking a  Parliament.  The  existence  of  a  rebellion,  and 
that  on  the  part  of  Scotchmen,  with  whom  the  feud  of 
past  ages  was  not  yet  quieted,  would  afford  strong 
ground  for  appeals  to  the  loyalty  of  the  Commons  of 
England ;  and  some  gracious  concessions,  fair  words,  and 
dexterous  management  might  do  the  rest.  At  all  events, 
in  the  circumstances,  the  measure  was  an  apparent  ne- 
cessity. 

After  the  longest  vacation  that  it  had  ever  witnessed, 
the   old   Palace  at  Westminster  gathered  again  ,,. 

o  o  King 

within    its    walls    the    lords,   knights,    and    bur-  <"i''ifies's 

^  Fourth 

gesses  of  England.     They  proved  to  have  come  Parliament. 
together   in   a   wonderfully   placid   temper,  con-     i64o. 
sidering  the  provocations  which  were  uppermost      '"' 
in    every   man's    thoughts.      The  business    of  the  lower 
House  was  opened  by  Mr.  Pym  with  a  recital  of  public 
grievances,^    in   which  he  was  followed  by  other  mem- 

1  Parliamentary  History,  11.  546-551. 
48* 


570  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

bers.  The  relation  of  Puritan  religion  to  English  liber- 
ties broke  forth  at  once.  "  They  have  so  brought  it 
to   pass,"   said  Sir  Benjamin  Kudyercl,  "  that  under  the 

name   of  Puritan    all    our   religion    is  branded 

Whosoever  squares  his  actions  by  any  rule,  either  di- 
vine or  human,  he  is  a  Puritan.  Whosoever  would  be 
governed  by  the  king's  laws,  he  is  a  Puritan.  He  that 
will  not  do  whatsoever  other  men  would  have  him  do, 
he  is  a  Puritan."  ^  When,  at  the  end  of  a  week,  the 
other  House,  on  the  instigation  of  the  court,  pressed  for 
an  immediate  supply,  the  Commons  resented  the  intru- 
sion. But  the  king  made  a  personal  appeal  for  twelve 
subsidies ;  and  the  money  seemed  on  the  point  of  being 
given,  had  not  his  own  arbitrary  humor  determined  other- 
wise. While  things  were  in  this  posture,  and  it  ap- 
peared that  a  day's  action  might  put  them  in  a  train 
of  permanent  peace,  he  suddenly  dissolved  the 
its^dissoiu-  pai-iiament,  to  the  consternation  of  his  wisest 
„    ,     friends,    and   the  infinite  content  of  those   who 

May  5.  ' 

already  carried  their  distrust  of  him  so  far  as 
to  hope  that  his  perversity  w^ould  bring  about  his  ruin. 
Patriotic  but  loyal  men  went  away,  disgusted  afresh 
with  the  impracticable  arrogance  of  a  sovereign,  whose 
errors  they  had  had  but  too  much  reason  to  condemn 
.  and  deplore,  but  had  not  yet  become  indisposed  to  for- 
give. 

This  error  was  repented  of  as  soon  as  it  was  irre- 
parable. The  king  consulted  whether  he  could  not  con- 
strue the  dissolution  as  a  prorogation  merely,  and,  being 
advised  that  this  was  impossible,  complained  impotently 
of  the  malign  influence  which  had  misguided  him  into 
such  a  fault." 

It  w^as  with  no  discouragement  as  to  the  prospect  of 
future   Parliaments,   that    the    popular   leaders    saw  him 

1  Rushworth,  Collections,  IV.  24  ;  May,        2  Clarendon,  Book  II. 
History  of  the  Long  Parliament,  73. 


CnAP.  XIV.]  PURITAN  POLITICS  IN  ENGLAND.  571 

collect  from  private  lenders  the    sum  of  three  hundred 
thousand  pounds  for  another   campaign.     It   was  much  * 
to  have  reduced  him  to  that  resource,  which  they  well 
knew  was  one  to  be   speedily  exhausted,  leaving   none 
in  its  place   but  that    public    treasury  which    the  Com- 
mons  would    supply   in    their    own    time   and    on    their 
own    terms.       His    spiritless    and   disaffected   army   was 
beaten  by  the  Scots  at  Newburn  in  a  skirmish 
which  cost  little  blood,  compared  with  its  impor-  army  beaten 
tance  as  a  political  indication.     Having  crossed  ^^ "'"  ^''°''' 
the    river   Tyne,    the   victors   continued    to    ad-    ^"s-ss. 
Vance,   sending  apologies   and   assurances   of  loyalty    to 
their  retreating  king.     His  money  was   spent.     His  ill- 
paid    and    undisciplined    troops    were    not    far    from    a 
general   mutiny,   while  some  of  those  about  his   person 
murmured    the    more    from    mortification    at    their    own 
misconduct  in  the  field.     Again  he   consented  to  treat. 
Meanwhile,    intensely   dreading   a   House    of  Commons, 
he  revived  a  custom  long  disused,  and  convoked  o.uncii  of 
at  York  a  Council  of  Peers.     But  the  peers  saw  ^''"'• 
nothing  better  to   advise  than  submission  to   the  hated 
necessity  of  another  Parliament :  and,  before  the 

.  Sept.  24. 

year  was  out,  it  was  assembled,   the  last  with 
which  the  infatuated   monarch   was   to   contend.     Mean- 
while, a  truce  for  two  months  with  the  invaders  Tmcewith 

1  1  r»    1    i  ,1  the  Scots. 

was  arranged  on  snamelui  terms,  —  among  others, 
that,    during   its    continuance,   they   should    re-    ^"^^  ^^' 
ceive  eight  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  a  day,  and  that,  in 
default  of  payment,  they  might  force  it  from  the  north- 
ern counties,  where  they  were  also  provided  with  winter 
quarters. 

The  history  of  the  assembly  known  as  the  Lone/  Par- 
liament is  too  familiar  for   even  a  brief  recital  Kin? 
of  it  in  this  place.      After  so  much  wrons^  en-  !;''"'®^'^. 

i-  S>  Fifth  Parha- 

dured,   so  much  alarm,   and  so  much   patience,  ^ent. 
the  recovery  and  security  of  the  liberties  of  Eng-    ^°^-  ^- 


572  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

lishmen  seemed  to  require  that  the  false  and  headstrong 
king,  and  some  of  the  foremost  of  his  incorrigible  ac- 
complices, should  be  severely  dealt  with.  The  king, 
through  the  Lord  Keeper,  one  of  his  most  hated  tools, 
communicated  his  wants,  and  made  gracious  promises. 
The  patriotic  party  knew  the  extent  of  the  embarrass- 
ments, and  the  worth  of  the  professions.  Following  a 
precedent  which  they  affirmed  to  be  of  immemorial  au- 
thority,  the   House   of  Commons    took    up    the 

Nov.  9.  .  . 

subject  of  grievances  before  that  of  grants.  They 
impeached  of  high-treason  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  ; 
Wren,  Bishop  of  Norwich ;  Finch,  Lord  Keeper ;  and 
the  Earl  of  Strafford.  Finch  fled  to  Holland;  Wren 
lay  twenty  years  in  the  Tower;  Laud  went  from  it, 
after  four  years,  to  execution ;  Strafford,  condemned 
1G41.  by  a  bill  of  attainder,  was  presently  beheaded, 
May  12.  -^^^-iJej.  a  warrant  from  his  faithless  master. 
Prynne,  Burton,  and  Bastwick,  discharged  from  prison, 
and  reimbursed  for  their  fines  by  a  fine  laid  on  the  Lords 
who  had  condemned  them  in  the  Star  Chamber,  were 
escorted  into  London  by  an  exulting  cavalcade  of  five 
thousand  men  and  women  decked  with  rosemary  and 
bays,^  followed  by  a  vast  throng  on  foot.  Numbers  of 
less  conspicuous  sufferers  from  the  abuses  of  recent  times 
were  released  and  indemnified. 

The    assessment    of  ship-money  and    compositions    for 
knighthood  were  condemned  by  Parliament,  as  contrary 
to   law  and  justice.     The  patents   of  .monopoly 
meai^nres    aud  tho  judgmcut  against  Hampden  were  can- 
o  reorm.    ^^|j^^|      r^^^^  absoluto  coutrol  of  thc  Commons 
over  tonnage  and  poundage  was  affirmed  in  peremptory 
terms.     The  Council  of  York   and    the   Courts   of  Star- 
Chamber  and  High-Commission  were  abolished  by  unani- 
mous votes  of  both  Houses ;  and  with  the  Star-Chamber 

1  Clarendon,  Book  III. ;  I\Iay,  79. 


CuAP.  XIV.]  PURITAN  POLITICS  IN  ENGLAND.  573 

fell  the  authority  of  royal  proclamations,  the  function  of 
enforcing  them  belonging  to  that  court.  Patents  of  judi- 
cial office  were  to  run  henceforward  during  good  behavior, 
and  not,  as  had  been  the  practice,  during  the  royal  pleas- 
ure. Parliament  assumed  the  payment  of  the  armies  of 
both  England  and  Scotland,  while  they  should  be  con- 
tinued on  foot.  Officers  professing  the  Catholic  religion 
were  discharged.  "  Scandalous  "  ministers  were  censured 
and  displaced.  Deprived  and  imprisoned  clergymen  were 
released,  and  restored  to  their  cures.  The  forest  laws  were 
revised  and  expurgated.  Provision  was  made  for  triennial 
Parliaments,  with  curiously  elaborate  securities  for  their 
convocation,  and  with  the  unprecedented  privilege  of 
exemption  from  being  adjourned,  prorogued,  or  dissolved, 
except  by  their  own  consent.  It  was  enacted  that  no  Privy 
Counsellor,  officer  of  state,  or  iudjje,  should  be 

'  O         n    '  Its  proroga- 

appointed  without  the  Parliament's  approbation.  t'^>"- 
At  the  adjournment  of  this  eventful  session,  a    ^^p'-^' 
committee  was  raised  to   sit  during  the  recess,  clothed 
with  almost  sovereign  powers. 

Before  its  close,  the  hing  set  off  for  Scotland,  ostensibly 
to  superintend  the  measures,  to  which  he  had 
been  brought  to   consent,  for  the  settlement  of 
that   kingdom   and  the  disbanding  of  the  armies.     The 
Lords  and  Commons  reassembled  but  three  days 

•'        Irish  re- 

before  the  breaking  out  of  that  sanguinary  Po-  beiuon. 
pish  rebellion  in  Ireland,  which  the  king,  in  the 
exasperation  of  the  time,  did  not  escape  the  charge  of 
having  contrived  or  favored.  Parliament  assumed  the 
conduct  of  the  war,  which  in  a  letter  from  Scotland  he 
had  "wholly  committed  to  their  care  and  wisdom";^  and 
they  proceeded  to  levy  money  for  its  j)rosecution,  and  to 
take  arms  from  the  royal  magazines.  The  committee, 
raised   at   the   close  of  the   preceding   session,    reported 

1  Clarendon,  Book  IV. 


574  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

what  was  called  a  Remonstrance,  reviewing  with  severe 
Grand  Re-  animadvcrsion  the  administration  of  public  affairs 
monstrance,  through  the  fifteen  years  from  the  beginning  of 
the  reign  to  the  existing  Parliament.^  All  the  influence 
of  the  Court,  and  all  parliamentary  devices,  were  employed 

to  prevent  its  approval  by  the  House  of  Commons. 

But  it  was  adopted,  presented  by  a  committee  to 
the  king,  and  then  printed  for  effect  upon  the  people.^ 

In  this  course  of  measures,  if  the  Commons  had  taken 
the  lead,  they  had  for  the  most  part  carried  the  concur- 
rence of  the  Lords,  and,  with  their  help,  had  obtained 

the    hard    wruns^    consent  of  the  sorely  embar- 

Revival  of  ... 

loyal  senti-  rasscd  klug.  Reaction  is  always  to  be  expected 
from  such  excitements  of  the  public  mind;  and 
the  king,  had  he  been  wiser,  might  have  taken  the  flood 
of  a  loyal  sympathy  at  the  turn  of  tide.  When  he  came 
from  the  north,  the  city,  which  had  of  late  abounded  in 
expressions  of  resentment,  welcomed  him  with  a 

Nov.  25.  . 

magnificent  feast  at  Guildhall,  with  a  numerous 

1  A  flood  of  light  has  just  now  been  and  Illustrations  of  the  Great  Rebel- 
thrown  on  the  character  and  relations  lion."  A  glance  at  its  contents  makes 
of  this  great  measure,  in  the  "  Essay  on  me  regret  that  I  was  not  earlier  ac- 
the  Grand  Remonstrance,"  in  the  first  quainted  with  a  work  so  promising  of 
volume  of  Mr.  John  Forster's  "  HIstori-  instruction. 

cal   and   Biographical   Essays."      The         -  The  measure  was   carried,  at  the 

materials  for  this  new  illustration  have  end  of  a  session  of  fourteen  hours,  by 

been  drawn  by  Mr.  Forster,  with  great  only  159  A'otes  against  148.     After  the 

industry,  from  notes  which  were  taken  division  Cromwell  told  Lord  Falkland, 

from  day  to  day  by  Sir  Simonds  d'Ewes,  as  they  passed  together  from  the  House, 

a  member  of  the  Parliament,  and  which  that,   if  it  had  been  lost,   "  he  would 

are  preserved  in  manuscript  in  the  Brit-  have  sold  all  he  had  the  next  morning, 

ish  Museum.     Li  mental  structure  and  and  never  have  seen  England  more." 

tastes    Sir  Simonds  bore  some  rescm-  (Clarendon,  Book  IV.) 
blance  to  the  best  and  most  absurd  of       From  a  sentence  in  the  Remonstrance, 

biographers;  and  by  force  of  qualities  it  appears  that  the  value  of  a  siihsithj 

which  thoy  had  in  common,  he  drew  (see  above,  p.  247,  note  1)  was  at  this 

almost  as  life-like  an  image  of  the  Long  time  fifty  thousand  pounds.     "  Six  sub- 

l^arliament,  as  Boswell  produced  of  his  sidles  have  been  granted,  and  a  bill  of 

hero.  poll-money,  which,  if  it  be  duly  levied, 

While  this  sheet  is  in  the  composi-  may  equal  six  subsidies  more,  in  all  six 

tor's  hands,  I  obtain  my  first  sight  of  lumdred   thousand   pounds."     (Parlia- 

Mr.  John  Langton  Sanford's  "  Studies  mentary  History,  11.  95G.) 


Chap,  XIV.]  PUEITAN  POLITICS  IN  ENGLAND.  575 

attendance  on  his  way  to  Westminster,  and  -with  other 
unwonted  tokens  of  respect.  ISIany,  who  had  been  act- 
ing against  him,  now  thought,  and  some  said  freely  and 
angrily,  that  he  had  been  dealt  with  rigo-rously  enough 
for  punishment,  and  had  been  sufficiently  disarmed  of 
power  to  do  further  mischief ;  and  that  the  E,emon- 
strance  was  an  unnecessary  and  vindictive  measure.  He 
chose  this  time  to  do  an  act  to  confound  his  friends,  and 
prove  to  doubters  that  they  who  most  severely  judged 
him  knew  him  best. 

Singling  out  Lord  Kimbolton,  afterwards  Earl  of  Man- 
chester, and  five  commoners,   HoUis,   Hazelrigg,  Hamp- 
den, Pym,  and  Strode,  as  objects  of  his  special 
vengeance  for  the  part  taken  by  them  in  the  re-  attempt  to 
cent  measures,  he  sent  the  Attorney-General  to  ^erronhr' 
the   House  of  Lords  to  arraiojn  them  for  hi*]:!!-  Housoof 

^  *-'  Commons. 

treason,   and  a  sergeant-at-arms  to  demand  the 
five   members   of  the  House  of  Commons.      Instead   of 
surrendering  them,  the  House  resolved  that  the  attemjot 
to  apprehend  them  was   a  breach  of  its  privileges,  and 
passed  a  vote  for  the  security  of  their  persons  and  prop- 
erty.    Transported  beyond  all  bounds   of  prudence,  the 
king  undertook  their  arrest  in  person.     He  came      1(340 
the  next  day  to   the   House  of  Commons  with     •''^"•^• 
two  or  three  hundred  armed  attendants.     The  Countess 
of  Carlisle,  a  lady  about  the  court,  had  sent  intelligence 
of  his  purpose  to  the  persons  accused,  just  in  time  for 
them  to  escape  by  one  door  as  the  king  reached  the  other. 
Leaving  his  guard  outside,  he  passed  up  the  hall,  while 
the  members  stood  uncovered.     The  Speaker  came  down 
from    his    chair,   and    the    king,    standing    before    it,   in- 
quired whether  any  of  the  members  whom  he  had  im- 
peached were   present.      The   Speaker,   dropping  on  his 
knee,    asked    pardon    for  saying  that   in    that   place   he 
had  no  eyes  to  see,  nor  tongue  to  speak,  except  as  the 
House,  whose  servant  he  was,  should  direct.     Glancing 


576  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

around  the  room,  the  king  said  in  a  short  speech,  that 
he  had  come  to  serve  the  process  which  yesterday,  in  the 
hands  of  his  officers,  had  been  evaded ;  but  that,  since  he 
saw  "  the  birds  were  flown,"  he  should  expect  them  to  be 
sent  to  him  by  the  House  as  soon  as  they  should  return. 
As  he  passed  from  the  hall,  there  was  a  cry  from  the 
members  of  "  Privilege  !  privilege  !  "  The  House  imme- 
diately adjourned  to  the  next  day,  and  the  five  members 
withdrew  to  the  city,  which  had  its  train-bands  under 
arms  all  night. 

Nothing  could  have  more  exasperated  and  at  the  same 
time  emboldened  the  Commons,  than  this  display  of  pas- 
sionate impotence.  When  they  met  again,  they  raised 
a  committee  to  report  on  the  recent  transaction,  then  ad- 
journed, and  repeated  their  adjournments  from  day  to 
day.  At  length,  at  the  end  of  a  week,  they  entered  St. 
Stephen's  Chapel  in  procession,  having  been  es- 

Procession  i      i    •    i  i  i  •  i  t 

oftiieiiouso  corted  thither,  partly  on  the  river  by  armed  ves- 
^owZTZZ  sels  and  city  barges,  partly  along  the  thorough- 
^'"jan.  n.  f^i'cs  of  London  and  Westminster  by  the  city 
train-bands  under  Philip  Skippon,  whom  they  had 
made  Major-General.  The  king  had  withdrawn  from 
Whitehall  to  Hampton  Court  the  night  before,  at  once  to 
escape  so  disagreeable  a  neighborhood,  and  to  digest  his 
intense  mortification  for  the  issue  of  his  folly.  He  had 
departed  alive  from  his  metropolitan  palace  for  the  last 
time. 

The  vexation  and  discouragement  of  the  king's  friends 
facilitated  the  measures  of  opposition.     Acts  passed  the 
Houses  for  the  exclusion  of  the  Bishops  from  the  House 
of  Peers,  and  for  the  pressing  of  troops,  both  which  re- 
ceived the  royal  sanction.     At  len^rth  the  decisive 

Kill  to  cive  •'  o 

Parliament     g^Qp  -^yas  takcu   of  DassincT  a  bill   for  nominat- 

tbe  control  of  "^  i  o 

the  militia,    ing  thc  Commanding  officers  of  the  militia  in  the 

February,   g^^y^^^.j^j   countics,  and   making  them    responsible 

to  Parliament  and  not  to   the  king.     This  was   seizing 


Chap.  XIV.]  PURITAN  POLITICS  IN  ENGLAND.  577 

the  power  of  the  sword,  as  that  of  the  purse  had  ah-eady 
been  secured. 

Down  to  this  time,  it  may  be  presumed  that  Charles 
had  flattered  himself  with  the  idea  of  having  made  no 
important  concessions  but  such  as  under  future 
more  favorable   circumstances   he  might   revoke,  resolution 
But  now  he  was  called  upon  to   surrender  the 

March. 

instrument  needful  for  the  recovery  of  what  had 
been  resigned.     Here  then  he  turned,  and  stood  at  bay. 
First  he  temporized  and  argued.     Next,  taking  his  two 
sons,  he  moved  northwards  to  York,  whither  he  was  fol- 
lowed by  numerous  nobles  and  gentlemen.     When,  from 
this  distance,  he  retorted  the  charges  of  the  Parliament  in 
a  bolder  tone,  they  proceeded  to  measures  for  officering 
the  militia,  and  taking  possession  of  the  garrisons.     At 
Hull  was  a  magazine  of  military  stores,  which  the  king 
would  have  seized ;  and  he  presented  himself  be- 
fore the  town  for  that  purpose.     But  the  Gov- 
ernor held  it  for  the  Parliament,  and   denied   him  en- 
trance.    Messages,  declarations,  popular  appeals  in  proc- 
lamations  and    counter-proclamations,   succeeded  to  each 
other.      The  king  rejected  a  basis  of  settlement  offered 
him   by  Parliament  in  nineteen  "  propositions."  Beginning  of 
At    last,    feeling    strong    enough    for    the    final  *  ^  j^^^^  ^"" 
arbitrament  of  Avar,  he   set  up  his   standard  at   Aug.  22. 
Nottingham,  and  called  on  all  good  subjects  to  rally  to 
the  rescue  of  the  throne. 

For  nearly  a  year  and  a  half  his  affairs  went  on  not 
unprosperously,  and  England  was  in  serious  danger  of  be- 
ing reduced  to  the  condition  of  Spain.  The  Earl  of  AVar- 
wick,  the  Parliament's  Admiral,  got  possession  of  the  fleet 
with  little  difficulty,  and  kept  the  sea  with  good  security 
against  aid  to  the  royal  cause  from  the  ports  of  France  and 
Holland.  But  the  Earl  of  Essex,  general-in-chief  for  the 
Parliament,  though  a  man  of  eminent  probity  and  cour- 
age, had  neither  military  genius  nor  diligent  enterprise. 

VOL.  I.  49 


578  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

His  levies  were  not  of  a  character  to  be  opposed,  on  equal 
terms,  to  the  dashing  spirits  that  gathered  round  the  royal 
standard.    Nor  was  there  wanting  a  suspicion,  on  the  part 
of  the  more  ardent  patriots,  that  he  did  not  desire  a  vic- 
tory over  the  king  more  decisive  than  would  suffice  to  dis- 
courage and  humble  him.     The  battle  of  Edgehill,  fought 
against  Essex  by  the  king's  nephew,  the  German 
Prince  Rupert,  was  claimed  as  a  triumph  by  the 
royal  party.      After  more  than  one  abortive  attempt  at 
pacification,  —  in  which  Parliament  abated  little  of  the 
rigor  of  its   demands,  —  and    not   a   few  fluctuations   of 
1C43.      unimportant  success  and  failure  at  York,  at  Staf- 
May-juiy.  {q^.^^  ^^  Bradoo  Down,  at  Stratton,  at  Lansdown, 
at  Roundway  Down,  and  elsewhere,  the  king  took 
Bristol,  then  the  second  most  considerable  city  in 
the  kingdom,  by  storm ;  and,  according  to  a  reasonable 
opinion  of  that  day,  as  well  as  of  times  more  recent,  he 
might  have  occupied  London  and  ended  the  contest,  had 
he  pushed  on  while  the  panic  from  the  great  disaster  in 
the  West  was  fresh. 

Rupert,  however,  or  the  king,  determined  not  to  leave 
Gloucester  in  the  rear.     That  city  was  held  for  the  Par- 
liament by  a  resolute   and  skilful   officer.      During  the 
slow  progress  of  the   siege   which   followed.   Parliament 
had  time  for  new  arrangements,  till  Gloucester,  after  be- 
ing reduced  to  the  last  extremity,  was  at  length  relieved  by 
a  reinforcement,  which  reached  Lord  Essex,  of  militia  from 
London ;  and  the  campaign  closed  with  the  battle 
of  Newbury,  contested  stoutly  with  large  forces, 
but  with  undecisive  success.     The  great  event  of  the  sea- 
son  was  the  death  of  Hampden,   from   wounds 

June  18-24.  .  r     i  i  l  1  J 

received  by  him  on  Chalgrave  field,  at  the  nead 

of  a  small  force  of  cavalry,  which  he  had  suddenly  raised 

to  intercept  Prince  Rupert.     When  Pym  died,  six  months 

later,  the  patriotic  party  had  lost  the  guides  who, 

by  general  consent,  were  most  competent  to  con- 


Chap.  XIV.]  PURITAN  POLITICS  IN  ENGLAND.  579 

duct  it  through    the  difficulties   of  the  undertaking  in 
which  it  was  engaged. 

The  progress  of  the  royal  arms  in  the  West  had  been 
partially  counterbalanced  in  the  North  by  the  successes 
of  Sir  Thomas  Fairfax  at  Wakefield,  and  of  Oliver  Crom- 
well at  Gainsborough ;  and  the  victory  won  at  Atherton 
Moor  by  the  royalist  Earl  of  Newcastle  over  Lord  Fair- 
fax, and  that  of  Cromwell  and  Sir  Thomas  Fairfax  at 
Horncastle,  alternately  raised  and  depressed  the  trem- 
bling scales.  When  the  armies  wen.t  into  winter  quar- 
ters, Parliament  applied  itself  with  diligence  to  rousing 
again  the  spirit  of  the  Scots.  In  the  result  of  the  nego- 
tiation, mainly  due,  as  was  thought,  to  the  energy  and 
address  of  Sir  Henry  Vane,  the  former  Governor  of 
Massachusetts,  a  "  Solemn  League  and  Covenant "  was 
subscribed  by  the  Convention  of  Scotland  and  by  the 
English  Parliament,  both  of  which  bodies  also  imposed 
it  on  all  office-holders,  civil,  ecclesiastical,  and  military. 
And  a  second  time  a  Scottish  army  crossed  the  1044. 
border,  now  twenty-one  thousand  strong,  and  ''*°"'"'^- 
again  under  the  command  of  the  same  experienced  soldier 
of  the  Continental  wars,  recently  ennobled  by  Charles  as 
Earl  of  Leven.  It  was  destined  not  to  retrace  its  march 
till  it  should  have  obtained  the  disposal  of  the  person 
of  its  king. 

Of  this  course  of  events  in  the  mother  country  the 
guides  of  New-England  politics  were  no  un-  ^^^^^^^^^^f 
concerned  observers ;  nor  is  it  possible  to  ffet  a  ""'"'  'f""^- 

■•■  "   ^  artioiis  on 

correct  view  of  some  of  their  proceedings  with-  NewEng- 

.  1-1  1  i.     ^^nd  politics. 

out  attention  to  what  was  taking  place  about 
the  same  time  on  the  other  side  of  the  water.  When 
Massachusetts,  on  the  news  of  the  appointment  of  a  Gen- 
eral Governor,  spent  a  few  hundreds  of  pounds  to  put 
her  plank  forts  in  order,  the  scheme  and  the  means  of 
resistance  provoke  a  smile  of  surprise.  But,  among  their 
observations  on  the  state  of  things  in  the  parent  country, 


580  HISTORY   or  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

the  Massachusetts  fathers  did  not  overlook  the  fact,  that 
English  ships  would  he  manned  from  Puritan  ports,  — 
those  same  ports,  whose  sailors  not  long  hefore  had  re- 
fused to  serve  against  the  Huguenots  of  Rochelle,^  and 
not  long  after,  when  the  civil  war  broke  out,  turned  over 
the  king's  fleets  to  the  Parliament's  Admiral.  And  when 
they  sent  their  bold  denial  of  the  last  demand  made  in 
King  Charles's  reign  for  the  transmission  of  the  charter,^ 
it  may  be  presumed  that  it  was  not  without  considera- 
tion of  those  pregnant  transactions  in  Scotland,  which 
for  more  than  a  year  had  fixed  the  attention  of  Eng- 
lishmen in  every  region  of  the  globe. 

The  reader  is  aware,  that,  while  some  of  the  asso- 
ciates in  the  Massachusetts  Company  emigrated  to  this 
continent  to  carry  out  its  plan,  others,  who  had  either 
never  contemplated  that  step,  or  who  had  been  led  by 
the  later  course  of  events  to  reconsider  it,  acquired  distinc- 
tion at  home  in  the  civil  or  the  military  service  during 
the  struggles  of  the  Long  Parliament  and  the  Common- 
wealth.^ How  far  the  leaders  in  New  England  had 
active  participation  in  those  transactions  which  preceded 
and  attended  the  overthrow  of  the  hierarchy  and  the 
throne,  is  a  question  which  does  not  fail  to  arrest  the 
thoughts  of  the  attentive  observer  of  that  period.  There 
is  manifest  reason  for  supposing  that,  under  circumstances 
so  interesting  to  them  in  common,  there  would  be  free  in- 
terchange of  thought  between  the  patriots  on  the  opposite 
shores ;  and  the  intimate  personal  relations,  which  many 
of  them  had  mutually  sustained,  convert  this  probability 
into  a  sort  of  certainty.  It  would  be  interesting. in  the 
highest  degree  to  know  the  communications  which,  during 
the  first  three  decades  of  years  after  the  transfer  of  the 

^  It  has  been   noticed   (sec   above,  those  whose  rehgious  overpowered  their 

p.    2G6,    note)    that    even    the    loyal  political  affinities  on  this  occasion. 

Gorges,  whose  shadow  so  haunted  the  2  See  above,  p.  556. 

Massachusetts    worthies,    was    one    of  3  gee  above,  pp.  304,  305. 


Chap.  XIV.]  PURITAN  POLITICS  IN  ENGLAND.  581 

charter  of  Massachusetts,  passed  across  the  water  between 
men  aUied  by  personal  confidence  and  by  a  common  de- 
votion to  the  noblest  objects.^  But,  as  yet,  curiosity  as 
to  such  intercourse  has  very  partial  gratification.  In  the 
alarm  of  the  Restoration,  there  was  a  large  destruction  of 
papers  in  families  connected  with  the  resistance  to  the 
king ;  ^  and,  though  treasures  of  this  kind  survived,  for 
the  most  part  they  were  presently  lost  sight  of,  and  it  is 
probable  that  many  exist,  which  have  not  yet  found  their 
way  again  to  the  light.^ 

A  singular  recognition   of  the  relation   of  New  Eng- 
land to  the  parent  country  appeared  soon  after  NewEng- 
the  Long  Parliament  addressed  itself  to  the  ref-  ^l"^  i""",gj 
ormation    of   religious    affairs.       A    letter    from  »"  t''"  ^^est- 

'-'  minster  As- 

five  peers   and   thirty-four  other  persons   (mem-  sembiyof 

1  r»       1  X  TT  1  •     •  \  Divines. 

bers   ot   the    Lower    House   and    ministers)    was      1043. 
received  by  Cotton  of  Boston,  Hooker  of  Hart-  '^«i'^«'"»'"- 
ford,  and   Davenport  of  New  Haven,  urging   them   "  to 
come  over  with  all  possible  speed,  all  or  any  of  them," 
to   give  their  help  "  for  the  settling  and  composing  the 
affairs    of  the    church."  "*       The    Act    of*  Parlia-      ,043. 
ment  convoking  the  Westminster  Assembly   of   •'""'' ^'- 
Divines  was  not  passed  till  the  following  summer.     But 
the  measure  had  been   proposed   several   months      1C4,. 
before  the  invitations  were  despatched,  and  there  December. 

1  The  Idem  scntire  de  repuhllcd.  3  Lady  Whitelocke  burned  quantities 

2  A  friend  Avho  made  the  inquiry  of  of  her  husband's  manuscripts.  (Lord 
a  near  relative  of  the  Duke  of  Cleve-  Campbell,  Lives  of  the  Chancellors, 
land,  the  representative  of  Sir  Henry  III.  386.)  The  recent  publication  of 
Vane,  informed  me  that  Vane's  papers  the  Fairfax  Papers  inspires  the  hope 
of  the  period  in  question  bad  not  been  that  more  of  the  same  kind  may  be 
preserved.  I  had  similar  information  forthcoming.  Thev  were  found,  in 
from  the  family  of  Lord  Say  and  Sele,  1822,  at  Leeds  Castle,  in  an  old  chest, 
in  respect  to  their  ancestor;  and  less  under  a  heap  of  Dutch  tiles,  which 
directly  I  was  told  the  same  thinp;  re-  seemed  to  fill  it. 

specting  the  archives  of  the  houses  of        ^  Hutchinson   (I.    Ill)   has  printed 
Warwick  and  Kensington,  representing     this  letter,  with  the  names  of  the  si"n- 
respectively  Greville  Lord  Brooke,  and     ers. 
Rich,  Earl  of  Warwick. 

49* 


582  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

can  be  little  doubt  that  they  had  reference  to  it,  and 
were  prompted  by  the  desire  of  eminent  persons,  disposed 
to  the  most  radical  reforms  in  church  government,  to  re- 
sist the  Presbyterian  influence,  which  was  expected  to 
prove  strong  in  that  body.^  Oliver  Cromwell,  Nathaniel 
Fiennes,  Sir  Arthur  Hazelrigg,  and  Oliver  St.  John  were 
among  the  signers  of  the  letter. 

Davenport  would  have  gone,  but  could  not  obtain  the 
consent  of  his  church.  Cotton  was  of  the  same  mind, 
but  was  not  inclined  to  go  alone.  And  Hooker,  who 
at  the  time  was  engaged  upon  a  plan  of  church  govern- 
ment for  New  England  on  the  Congregational  or  Inde- 
pendent model,  "  liked  not  the  business,  nor  thought 
it  any  sufficient  call  for  them  to  go  three  thousand 
miles."  "  There  was  no  doubt  an  apprehension  of  getting 
involved  in  the  ecclesiastical  politics  of  the  mother  coun- 
try, whatever  might  there  be  the  ultimate  turn  of  events. 
Presbytery  would  never  take  root  in  New  England.  A 
feeble  attempt  to  introduce  it  at  Boston,  after  the  meet- 
ing of  the  Assembly  of  Divines,  by  some  persons  from 
abroad,  only  served  to  show  how  alien  the  system  was 
from  the  sentiments  and  habits  of  the  place.'"' 

It  was  certainly  far  from  being  through  any  indis- 
position to  influence  the  great  aflairs  then  in  progress 
in  England,  that  the  invitations  addressed  to  the  minis- 
ters were  declined.  Little  time  had  passed,  after  the 
temper  of  Kins:  Charles's  last  Parliament  be^an 

Mission  to  ^  .  .     °  1        -!-»  ^    o    1 

England,    to  maulfcst  Itsclf,   when   Hugh   Peter  of  Salem 
1641.      and  Thomas  Welde  of  Roxbury,  with  William 
Hibbens,  a  merchant   of   Boston,   were  appoint- 
ed  "  to   go  for    England    upon   some  weighty   occasions 
for  the  good    of  the  country,   as   was   conceived."^      It 

1  Winthrop,  II.  7G;  comp.  137.  4  Mass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  332.  — "With 

2  Il)i(l..  II.  76.  them    went    one    of    the    magistrates, 

3  Hutchinson,  I.  112.  I  have  ob-  Mr.  John  Winthrop,  Jr."  (Winthrop, 
served   no  mention  of  this  transaction  II.  31.) 

earlier  than  Hutchinson's. 


Chap.  XIV.]  PURITAN  POLITICS   IN   ENGLAND.  583 

is  perhaps  not  owing  to  accident  that  their  instructions 
have  not  been  preserved.  Winthrop  says :  "  They  [the 
General  Court]  thought  fit  to  send  some  chosen  men 
into  England  to  congratulate  the  happy  success  there, 
and  to  satisfy  our  creditors  of  the  true  cause  why  we 
could  not  make  so  current  payment  now  as  in  former 
years  we  had  done,  and  to  be  ready  to  make  use  of  any 
opportunity  God  should  offer  for  the  good  of  the  coun- 
try here,  as  also  to  give  any  advice,  as  it  should  be  re- 
quired, for  the  settling  of  the  right  form  of  church 
discipline  there;  but  with  this  caution,  that  they  should 
not  seek  supply  of  our  wants  in  any  dishonorable  way, 
as  by  begging  or  the  like,  for  we  were  resolved  to  wait 
upon  the  Lord  in  the  use  of  all  means  which  were 
lawful  and  honorable."  ^  It  may  be  presumed  to  have 
been  through  the  influence  of  these  envoys,  that  1C43. 
an  Act  of  Parliament  was  passed  relieving  all  ^'"'^^lo. 
commodities  carried  between  England  and  New  Eng- 
land from  the  payment  of  "  any  custom,  subsidy,  taxa- 
tion, imposition,  or  other  duty,"  till  the  further  order 
of  the   House    of  Commons.^      It   is    also    known,  that 


1  Winthrop,  II.   31;  comp.   25,  2G.  did  not  like  to  have  the  question  moved, 

—  It  is  probable  that  AVinthrop  (II.  42)  or  to  have  anything  done  which  could 

refers  to  a  proceeding  of  these  agents,  be  construed  as  a  recognition,  on  the 

•when  he  writes,  in  September,  1641:  part   of  Massachusetts,  of  foreign   au- 

"  Some  of  ouji  people,   being  then   in  thority.      On   this   point  his  vigilance 

London,    prere^'red   a   petition    to  the  never  relaxed.     "Some  of  our  friends 

Lords'  House,  for  redress  of  that  re-  there  [in  England]  wrote  to  us  advice 

straint  which  had  been  put  upon  ships  to  send  over  some  to  solicit  for  us  in 

and  passengers  to  New  England ;  where-  the  Parliament,  giving  us  hope  that  we 

upon  an  order  was  made  that  we  should  might  obtain  much,  &c.     But,  consult- 

enjoy  all  our  liberties,  &c.,  according  ing  about  it,  we  declined  the  motion, 

to   our    patent;    whereby   our   patent,  for  this  consideration,  that,  if  we  should 

which  had  been  condemned,  and  called  put  ourselves  under  the  protection  of 

in  upon  an  erroneous  judgment  in  a  the  Parliament,  we  must  then  be  sul>- 

quo  loarranto,  was  now  implicitly  re-  ject   to   all   such   laws  as  they  should 

vived    and    confirmed."      While   com-  make,  or  at  least  such  as  they  might 

memorating  the  benefit,  he  is,  however,  impose  upon  us."    (Winthrop,  II.  25.) 

careful    to    add:    "This    petition    was  2  gge  Hazard,  I.  494.  —  In  the  use 

preferred    without   warrant   from    our  of  a  remarkable  phraseology,  this  Act 

Court."     (Comp.  above,  p.  643.)     He  calls  New  England  "that  kingdom,"  as  if 


584  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

part  of  their  business  was  to  collect  funds  for  the  preach- 
ing of  the  Gospel  to  the  natives.^  On  the  trial  of  Hugh 
Peter  after  the  Restoration,  a  witness  testified  to  having 
heard  him  say,  that  he  had  been  sent  from  New  Eng- 
land "  to  promote  the  interest  of  reformation,  by  stirring 
up  the  war,  and  driving  it  on  "  ;  ^  and,  "vvith  due  allowance 
for  the  language,  this  cannot  be  deemed  unlikely  to  have 
been  true.  Neither  Peter  nor  his  clerical  companion  ever 
returned  to  America.  For  twenty  years  the  former  was 
a  busy  actor  in  the  revolutionary  movements  of  the 
time,  till  the  restoration  of  Charles  the  Second  brought 
him  to  the  block.  Welde,  whose  agency  was  less  promi- 
nent, though  not  inconsiderable,  was,  on  the  resti- 
tution of  the  old  order  of  things,  ejected  from  a 
church  which  he  had  been  serving,  and  is  believed  to 
have  died  soon  after. 

One  all-important  consequence  of  the  meeting  of  the 
Long  Parliament  had  been  immediately  apparent  in  rela- 
tion to  New  England.  It  put  a  final  stop  to  the 
uMcTo"  emigration.^  At  the  end  of  ten  years  from  A¥in- 
emigration.  .ti^j-op's  arrlval,  about  twenty-one  thousand  Eng- 
lishmen, or  four  thousand  families,  including  the 
few  hundreds  who  were  here  before  him,  had  come  over,  in 
three  hundred  vessels,  at  a  cost  of  two  hundred  thousand 

pounds  sterling.'*     During  the  century  and  a  quarter  that 

■i. 

acknowledging  it  to  be  an  independent  ^  Account  of  the  TrL  t  of  Twenty- 
power.  The  preamble  recites,  that "  the  nine  Regicides,  170. 
plantations  in  New  England  have,  by  3  "  The  Parliament  of  England  set- 
the  blessing  of  Almighty  God,  had  good  ting  upon  a  general  reformation  both 
and  prosperous  success,  idthout  any  of  church  and  state,  the  Earl  of  Straf- 
jmhlic  charge  to  tJtls  stain."  ford  being  beheaded,  and  the  Archbish- 
1  In  the  Bodleian  Library  at  Oxford  op,  our  great  enemy,  and  many  others 
is  a  collection  of  manuscript  papers  of  of  the  great  officers  and  judges,  bishops 
Welde,  chiefly  relating  to  this  part  of  and  others,  imprisoned  and  called  to 
liis  commission.  A  copy  is  in  the  Li-  account,  this  caused  all  men  to  stay 
brary  of  Harvard  College.  The  read-  in  England  in  expectation  of  a  new 
er  of  them  infers  that  the  business  of  world."  (Winthro|),  11.  31.) 
evangelizing  the  Indians  was  not  prom-  "*  "  The  number  of  ships,"  says  John- 
inent  among  Welde's  objects,  and  still  son,  "  that  transymrted  passengers  in  this 
less  among  those  of  Peter.  space  of  time  ["  fifteen  years'  space  to 


Chap.  XIV.]  PURITAN  POLITICS  IN  ENGLAND.  585 

passed  between  that  time  and  the  publication  of  the  first 
volume  of  Hutchinson's  History,  it  is  believed  that 
"  more  had  gone  from  hence  to  England,  than  had  come 
from  thence  hither";^  nor  did  anything  that  can  be  called 
an  immigration  occur  again  till  after  Boston  was  two 
hundred  years  old.  From  the  day  of  the  summoning  of 
Charles's  fifth  Parliament,  there  was  the  prospect  of  a  fair 
field  to  fight  out  the  battle  of  freedom  at  home,  and  the 
expatriation  of  patriotic  English  ceased  with  the  existence 
of  its  motive. 

Nor  did  the  tide  of  emigration  merely  stop  flowing.  It 
turned  back.  The  ranks  of  opposition,  civil  and  military, 
in  the  parent  country,  were  swelled  by  accessions  from 
New  England.     Stephen  Winthrop,  son  of  the 

#0  ^  1^  '  ^  Return  of 

Governor,  became  one  of  the  Parliament's  Major-  emierants 
Generals  ;  Robert  Sedgwick,  of  Charlestown,  one 
of  Cromwell's  ;  and  John  Leverett  (subsequently  Gov- 
ernor of  Massachusetts)  one  of  his  subalterns,  having 
left  the  colony  for  that  purpose  at  an  early  period  of  the 
troubles.  Stoughton,  the  Massachusetts  leader  in  the 
Pequot  war,  and  George  Fenwick,  of  Saybrook,~  went 
over    to    command    reo:iments    in    the    Parliament's    ser- 


'O 


the  year  1 043"],  as  is  supposed,  is  298.  expense    was   approved,   in   the   third 

Men,  women,  and  children,  passing  over  following  generation,  by  that  very  in- 

this  wide  ocean,  as  near  as  at  present  telligent  and  well-informed  writer,  Jer- 

can  be  gathered,  is  also  supposed  to  be  emiah  Dummer.    (Defence  of  the  New- 

21,200,    or    thereabout."       (Wonder-  England  Charter^,  13;  comp.Oldmixon, 

Working    Providence,    Chap.    XIV.)  British  Empire,  &c.,  I.  81 ;  Hutchinson, 

The  whole  sum  expended  in  their  estab-  History,  I.  91.)     Dummer  restricts  the 

lishment  in  New  England,  including  tlie  estimated  expenditure  to   "  the  single 

transportation  of  themselves  and  of  their  province  of  the  Llassachusetts  Bay." 
effects,  and  the  cost  of  their  arms  and         i  Hutchinson,  Preface,  vii. 
amraunition,of  their  materials  for  build-         2  Fenwick  attained  various  honors, 

ing,  and  of  their  food  till  they  had  time  He  was  one  of  the  Board  of  Commis- 

to  produce  it,  was   estimated  in  that  sioners  for  Plantations ;  a  Commissioner 

generation   at   "one   hundred   ninety-  for  the  treaty  with  Scotland  in  164G; 

two  thousand  pound,  besides  that  which  a  Commissioner  for  regulating  the  af- 

the  Adventurers  laid  out  in  England."  fairs   of   Scotland  in    1651;   and   Gov- 

(Ibid.,  Chap.  XIII.)     This  estimate  of  ernor  of  Berwick  in  1G52.     In  1G56  he 


586  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

vice.  Samuel  Desborough,  of  Guilford,  was,  by  the 
Protector,  made  Keeper  of  the  Great  Seal  of  Scotland. 
Hugh  Peter  and  Thomas  Welde,  sent  over  by  Mas- 
sachusetts to  look  after  its  affairs,  both  rose  to  in- 
fluence with  Cromwell,  and  the  former,  as  his  chaplain, 
walked  by  the  Protector's  Secretary,  John  Milton,  at  his 
funeral,'  Edward  Hopkins,  Governor  of  Connecticut, 
became  a  member  of  Parliament,  Warden  of  the  Fleet, 
and  Commissioner  for  the  Navy  and  Admiralty.  Edward 
Winslow,  of  Plymouth,  was  made  one  of  the  Commis- 
sioners in  command  of  the  naval  force  sent  by  the  Pro- 
tector against  Jamaica,  and  lost  his  life  in  that  service. 
George  Downing,  one  of  the  nine  graduates  at  the  first 
Commencement  of  Harvard  College,  became  Scoutmaster- 
General  of  the  English  army  in  Scotland,  and  afterwards 
ambassador  of  Cromwell  to  the  Low  Countries,  perhaps 
the  most  important  civil  post  in  the  public  service. 
Benjamin  Woodbridge,  another  of  the  academical  first- 
fruits  of  New  England,  was  made  chaplain  to  Charles 
the  Second,  when  that  prince,  in  the  time  of  his  troubles, 
professed  to  have  renounced  Episcopacy.  Of  other  New- 
England  ministers,  John  Woodbridge,  of  Newbury,  was 
chaplain  to  the  Commissioners  of  Parliament  sent  to 
the  Isle  of  Wight  to  treat  with  King  Charles  ;  and  AVil- 
liam  Hook,  of  New  Haven,  was  one  of  the  chaplains  of 
Cromwell.  Hoadly,  of  Guilford,  grandfather  of  the  much 
more  famous  Bishop  Hoadly,  became  chaplain  to  Crom- 
well's garrison  in  Edinburgh  Castle,  when  chaplains  of 
garrisons  were  men  of  some  trust  and  power.  Other  per- 
sons, already  or  afterwards  ministers,  returned  to  England 
to  be  employed   in   less   important    spheres.^      Between 

■was  returned  to  Parliament,  and  was  2  Among  them  may  be  named  Sam- 
excluded  from  it  by  the  Protector.  He  ucl  ]\Iathcr,  John  Knowles,  John  Allen, 
died  soon  after.  Thomas  Allen,  John  Bulkley,  Giles 
1  Diary  of  Thomas  Burton,  Esq.,  Firmin,  Henry  Whitefield,  Henry  But- 
&c.,  U.  524.  ler,  Nathaniel  Brewster,  William  Ames, 


Chap.  XIV.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  587 

such  persons  and  the  friends  whom  they  had  left  in 
New  England,  it  is  inconceivable  that  there  should  not 
have  been  a  frequent  interchange  of  information  and 
advice. 

Effects  followed  of  less  general  importance  than  the 
arrest  and  refluent  tide  of  emigration,  but  such  as  were 
not  without  influence  on  the  condition  of  the  new  country. 
It  was  no  time  for  measures  in  England  to  secure  Territorial 
the  claim  of  Mason's  heirs  in  New  Hampshire ;  ^j'!^',"'a'J,„. 
and  Lord  Brooke  and  Lord  Say  and  Sele  had  no  ^^tis. 
longer  leisure  for  attention  to  their  afiiiirs  in  the  same 
quarter.^  With  the  more  freedom  Massachusetts  pushed 
its  boundary  in  that  direction.  The  charter  of  the  Mas- 
sachusetts Company,  literally  interpreted,  endowed  it 
witli  nearly  all  the  territory  of  the  present  State  of  New 
Hampshire ;  for  the  most  northerly  source  of  the  waters 
of  the  Merrimack  is  in  the  White  Mountains.  And  even 
at  this  6arly  time  it  was  well  known  that  a  parallel  of 
latitude  drawn  three  miles  north  of  every  part  of  that 
river  enclosed  the  settlements  at  and  near  the  mouth 
of  the  Piscataqua.^  Massachusetts  had  had  some  regard 
to  this  pretension,  in  building  her  house  at  Hampton ;  ^ 
but  the  course  of  events  determined  that  she  should 
have  no  occasion  to  make  a  forcible  assertion  of  the 
claim. 

On  Underhill's  return  to  Dover  after  his  submission 
to  the  Boston  church,  he  set  himself  to  defeat  a  nego- 
tiation   which   had   been   on   foot  for  annexing- 

1640, 

that    settlement    to    the   jurisdiction    of   Massa- 

Jeremiah  Holland,  Jolin   Birden,  and  Clarendon,    however,    -who   knew   the 

Abraham  AValver.     More  than  half  of  man,   though   he  liked  his  politics   no 

these  were  graduates  of  Harvard  Col-  better   than   the  poet  did,  could  say : 

lege  in  its  first  six  years.  "  They  who  were  acquainted  with  him 

1  Lord  Brooke  was  killed  while  be-  believed   him  to   be  well-natured  and 

sieging  the  Cathedral  close  of  Lichfield  just."     (History,  Book  VI.) 

in  1G43.     Scott  says(Marmion,cant.6):  ^  gee  above,  p.  287. 

"  Fanatir  Brooke  ^    ScB  above,  p.  51G. 

The  fair  Cathedral  stormed  and  took." 


588  HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  L 

chusetts ;  ^    and  some  treacherous  proceedings  of  his  to 
this  effect  became  known  at  Boston.     At  Exeter, 

Disorders  in  •  i     •  i  zt'  » 

New  iiamp-  "  onc  Gabricl  Fish  was  detanied  m  the  oincers 
hands  for  speaking  against  the  king."  The 
magistrates  of  that  feeble  settlement  had  probably  felt 
obliged  to  take  this  step  for  appearances'  sake  ;  but,  in 
view  of  the  Puritan  tendencies  of  the  time,  they  had  seen 
at  once  the  responsibility  which  they  assumed,  and  had 
gone  to  "  the  Bay  to  take  advice  what  to  do."  Underbill 
seized  upon  this  occasion  to  display  his  lately  conceived 
loyalty,  by  a  measure  for  preventing  that  release  of  Fish 
which  he  anticipated  that  the  advisers  in  the  Bay  would 
recommend.  "  To  ingratiate  himself  with  the  state  of 
England,  and  with  some  gentlemen  at  the  river's  mouth, 
who  were  very  zealous  that  way,  and  had  lately  set  up 
Common  Prayer,^  &c.,  he  sent  thirteen  men  armed  to 
Exeter  to  fetch"  the  prisoner  to  Dover.  This,  and  the 
part  he  had  taken  in  obstructing  the  movenient  for 
a  union  with  Massachusetts,  gave  offence  to  the  ma- 
jority of  his  neighbors,  who  began  "  consulting  to 
remove  him  from  his  government."  Hearing  of  their 
purpose,  "he  could  not  refrain,  but  came  and  took  his 
place  in  the  Court,"  which  they  had  desired  him  not 
to  do ;  "  and,  though  he  had  offered  to  lay  down  his 
place,  yet  when  he  saw  they  went  about  it,  he  grew 
passionate,  and  expostulated  with  them,  and  would  not 
stay  to  receive  his  dismission,  nor  would  be  seen  to  ac- 
cept it,  when  it  was  sent  after  him.  Yet  they  proceeded 
and  chose  one  Roberts  to  be  President  of  the  Court,  and 
soon  after  they  returned  back  Fish  to  Exeter,  which," 
says  Winthrop,  "was  considerately  done  of  them."  ^ 

1  "  Whereas  he  himself  was  the  Mr.  Emmanuel  Downing,  and  Cap- 
mover  of  them  to  break  off  their  tain  Edward  Gibbons  Avore  ajjiiointed 
agreement  with  us,  he  had  written  to  to  treat  with  the  three  Connnittees  from 
our  Governor,  and  laid  it  upon  the  the  town  of  Dover  upon  Piscataqua." 
people,  especially  upon  some  among  (Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  I.  276  ) 
them."  (Winthrop,  I.  327.)  —  Novem-  2  See  above,  p.  .52.3,  note  1. 
ber  5,  1G39,  "The  Deputy-Governor,  3  Winthrop,  I.  327. 


Chap.  XIV.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  589 

"  Soon  after  this  the  captain  came  by  water  into  the 
Bay,  to  tender  (as  he  said)  satisfaction  to  the  church. 
But  the  church,  not  being  satisfied  of  his  re- 
pentance, would  not  admit  him  to  public  speech.  So, 
after  one  week,  he  returned  home."  ^  Before  the  end 
of  many  months,  however,  "  being  brought,  by  the  bless- 
ing of  God  on  the  church's  censure  of  excommunica- 
tion, to  remorse  for  his  foul  sins,"  he  obtained  leave  to 
come  to  Boston,  where,  "  upon  the  lecture-day, 
after  sermon,"  he  made  a  full  avowal  of  his 
offences,^  and  was  relieved  by  the  church  from  his  ex-, 
communication,  and  by  the  General  Court  from  his 
sentence  of  banishment. 

In  the  month  after  this  transaction,  and  perhaps  through 
apprehension  of  its  influence  on  Underhill's  mind,  certain 
planters  at  Dover,  to  the  number  of  forty-one,  entered 
into  the  first  formal  compact  which  had  there  been 
made,  confederatino^  to^^ether  to  be  s^overned  by 

Oct.  22. 

the  laws  of  England,  and  by  other  laws  to  be 
enacted  by  a  majority  of  the  settlers,  till  such  time  as 
the  king's  government  should  prescribe  some  diflerent 
organization.^  Among  the  names  subscribed  to  this  docu- 
ment, the  first  is  that  of  Thomas  Larkham,  who  had  just 
come  with  a  new  contribution  to  the  ferment-  Thomas 
ing  elements  at  Dover.     He  "  had  been  a  minis-  ^^f'^'is"'- 

1  Winthrop,  I.  328.  appeared    as    a   man    worn    out   with 

2  "  He  came  in  his  worst  clothes,  sorrow,  and  yet  he  could  find  no 
(being  accustomed  to  take  great  pride  peace ;  therefore  he  was  come  now  to 
in  his  bravery  and  neatness,)  without  seek  it  in  this  ordinance  of  God.  He 
a  band,  in  a  foul  linen  cap  pulled  close  spake  well,  save  that  his  blubbering, 
to  his  eyes  ;  and,  standing  upon  a  form,  &c.  interrupted  him."  (Winthrop,  II. 
he  did,  with  many  deep  sighs  and  abun-  14.) 

dance   of  tears,   lay  open   his  wicked  3  Por     this      "  Combination,"     see 

course,  his  adultery,  his  hypocrisy,  his  Hutchinson,  I.  102,  or  Farmer's  edition 

persecution  of  God's  people  here,  and  of  Belknap,  433.     The  subscribers  say 

especially  his  pride   (as  the  root  of  all,  that  they  find  it  expedient  to  confed- 

which   caused    God  to  give  him  over  erate,  "his  most  gracious  INIajesty  hav- 

to  his  other  sinful  courses)   and  con-  ing  settled  no  order  for  them,  to  their 

tempt  of  the  Magistrates He  knowledge." 

VOL.  I.                                   50  • 


590  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

ter  at  Northam  near  Barnstable  in  England.^ Being 

a  man  of  good  parts  and  wealthy,  the  people  were  soon 
taken  Avitli  him,  and  the  greater  part  were  forward  to 
cast  off  Mr.  Knollys,  their  pastor,  and  to  choose  him." 
"  He  received  into  the  church  all  that  offered  them- 
selves, though  men  notoriously  scandalous  and  ignorant, 

so  as  there  soon  grew  sharp   contention  between 

him  and  Mr.  Knollys,  to  whom  the  more  religious  still 
1C41.  adhered."  ^  The  renewed  strife  between  Church- 
^^^^-  man  and  Antinomian  was  not  merely  a  war  of 
words. ^  "Mr.  Knollys  and  his  company  excommuni- 
cated Mr.  Larkham,  and  he  again  laid  violent  hands 
upon  Mr.  Knollys."  Larkham's  party  undertook  to 
arrest  Underbill,  who,  by  his  recent  favorable  reception 
at  Boston,  had  been  converted  back  again  from  his 
unwonted  sympathy  with  the  "  gentlemen  at  the  river's 
mouth " ;  and,  on  his  part,  "  he  also  gathered  some  of 
the  neighbors  to  defend  himself  and  to  see  the  peace 
kept ;  so  they  marched  forth  towards  Mr.  Larkham's, 
one  carrying  a  Bible  upon  a  staff  for  an  ensign,  and 
Mr.  Knollys  with  them  armed  with  a  pistol."  Seeing 
that  they  were  likely  to  be  worsted,  Larkham's  party 
"  sent  to  Mr.  Williams,  who  Avas  Governor  of  those 
in  the  lower  part  of  the  river."  Williams  "  came  up 
with  a  company  of  armed  men,  and  beset  Mr.  Knollys's 
house,  where  Captain  Underbill  then  was,  and  there 
they  kept  a  guard  upon  him  night  and  day."  Lark- 
ham's friends  "  called  a  court,  and,  Mr.  Williams  sitting 
as  Judge,  they  found  Captain  Underbill  and  his  com- 
pany guilty  of  a  riot,  and  set  great  fines  upon  them, 
and  ordered  him  and  some  others  to  depart  the  plan- 
tation. The  cause  of  this  eager  prosecution  of  Captain 
Underbill  was,"  if  Winthrop  judged  rightly,  "because  he 
had  procured  a  good   part  of  the   inhabitants    there   to 

^  From  this  circumstance  Dover  took,        2  Winthrop,  II.  27. 
for  a  little  while,  the  name  of  Northam. 


Chap.  XIV.  ] 


MASSACHUSETTS. 


591 


offer  themselves  again  to  the  government  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts." ^ 

Underhill  and  his  friends  applied  to  Massachusetts 
for  help,  and  the  magistrates  "  gave  commission  to  Mr. 
Bradstreet,  .....  Mr.  Peter,  and  Mr.  Dalton,^  to  go  thither 
and  to  endeavor  to  reconcile  them ;  and,  if  they  could  not 
effect  that,  then  to  inquire  how  things  stood,  and  to 
certify,  &c.  They  went  accordingly,  and  finding  both 
sides  to  be  in  fault,  they  brought  matters  to  a  peace- 
able end.  Mr.  Larkham  was  released  of  his  excom- 
munication, and  Captain  Underhill  and  the  rest  from 
their  censures."  A  different  result  of  the  investisration 
was,  that  "  Mr.  Knollys  was  discovered  to  be  an  un- 
clean person."^  On  the  whole,  Dover  was  in  no  hope- 
ful way. 


1  Winthrop,  II.  27,  28.  — Tliomas 
Lechford,  in  bis  "  Plain  Dealing,"  &c. 
(P  ^"^)'  g'^'^s  an  account  of  the  same 
transaction.  "  Master  Larkham,"  he 
says,  "  flying  to  the  magistrates,  Master 
K.  [Knollys]  and  a  Captain  [Underhill] 
raised  arms  and  expected  help  from 
the  Bay,  Master  K.  going  before  the 
troop  with  a  Bible  upon  a  pole's  top, 
and  he,  or  some  of  his  party,  giving 
forth  that  their   side  were  Scots,  and 

the    other  English Nine   of 

them  were  censured  to  be  whipped, 
but  that  was  spared.  Master  K.  and 
the  Captain,  their  leaders,  were  fined 
a  hundred  pounds  apiece."  Knollys's 
calling  his  party  Scots  and  the  oth- 
er party  English  will  be  understood 
when  it  is  remembered  that  the  battle 
of  Newburn-upon-Tyne  (see  above, 
p.  571)  had  lately  been  fought.  Ac- 
cording to  Hubbard  (p.  362),  Larkham 
"  laid  violent  hands  on  Mr.  Knollys, 
taking  the  hat  from  his  head,  pretend- 
ing it  was  not  paid  for ;  but  he  was  so 
civil  as  to  send  it  him  again." 

2  The  Reverend  Timothy  Dalton, 
who  was  now,,  or  soon  after,  teacher 
of  the  church  of  Hampton.      (Johnson, 


Wonder-working    Providence,      Book 
II.   Chap.  XIII.) 

3  Winthrop,  II.  28  -—  Underhill  re- 
turned to  Boston  the  following  year; 
but,  partly,  perhaps,  because  he  was, 
after  all,  in  no  good  credit  there,  he 
"found  no  employment  that  would 
maintain  him  and  his  family."  The 
Dutch  on  Hudson's  River,  and  the 
English  at  Stamford,  having  made  him 
proposals,  the  Boston  church  advised 
him  to  take  service  with  his  country- 
men at  the  latter  place,  and  gave  him 
a  passage  and  a  liberal  outfit  accord- 
ingly ;  "  but,  when  he  came  there,  he 
changed  his  mind,  or  at  least  his 
course,  and  went  to  the  Dutch." 
(Ibid.,  II.  63.)  He  signalized  him- 
self in  wars  between  them  and  the 
Indians  (Ibid.,  157) ;  and  at  length 
died,  in  1672,  on  Long  Island,  hav- 
ing, in  the  interval,  been  for  some 
time  a  resident  in  New-Haven  Col- 
ony, and  a  Deputy  to  its  General 
Court  from  Stamford.  (N.  H.  Col. 
Rec,  85.)  Both  Larkham  and  Knol- 
lys, in  1641,  went  back  to  England, 
where  they  lived  many  years  in  good 
repute. 


592  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

Experiences  of  this  kind  taught  the  Piscataqua  set- 
tlements that  they  were  not  in  a  condition  to  go  on 
Accession  comfoi'tably  by  themselves;  the  territorial  claim 
Hampsiurl  ^f  Massachusctts  was  always  hanging  over  their 
settlements    j^g^ds :  tlio  stato  of  affairs  in  Eng-land  precluded 

to  Massa-  '  o  l 

chusetts.  the  expectation  of  any  present  attention  from 
that  quarter ;  and  the  communities  were  too  dissimilar 
from  each  other,  as  well  as  singly  too  feeble  and  hetero- 
geneous, to  find  sufficient  strength  in  a  union  together. 
The  natural  and  prudent  resource  was  to  seek  the  protec- 
tion of  Massachusetts.  At  the  end  of  more  than  a  year's 
1C41.  negotiation,  Strawberry  Bank  ^  and  Dover  placed 
June  14.  themselves  under  the  jurisdiction  of  that  colony,^ 
with  careful  reservations  of  the  rights  of  the  English 
patentees  to  their  property  in  the  soil.  Two  Deputies 
were  allowed  to  be  sent  "  from  the  whole  river  to  the 
Court  at  Boston";  and  in  all  respects  the  persons  now 
admitted  were  to  have  the  privileges  of  settlers  in  Mas- 
sachusetts. The  freemen  and  deputies  (the  settlers  at 
Strawberry  Bank,  and  many  at  Dover,  not  being  of  the 
Puritan  persuasion)  were  exempted  from  the  obligation 

1  The  earliest  use  of  tliis  name,  that  particular  from  the  jurisdiction  of  the 

I  have  observed,  as  a  designation  of  JNIassachusetts    Bay, for   the 

the  town  at  the  mouth  of  the  Piscata-  avoiding  of  such  insufferable  disorders, 

qua,  was  in  September,  1G42.     (Mass.  whereby  God  had  been  much  dishon- 

Col.  Kec,  II.  32.)    "  Strawberry  Bank  ored  amongst  them."     The  patentees 

Creek,"   however,    is    referred    to    in  reserved  to  themselves  "  one  third  part 

the   grant  of  the   parsonage  glebe  in  of  the  land "  in  the  Dover  patent,  and 

1C40.    (Sec  above,  p.  523.)    Slrawhemj  all  the  land  in  the  other.     The  trans- 

Bank  continued  to  be  the  name  of  the  action   was   completed    by   an  Act  of 

town  till  lGo3.     (Mass.  Col.  liec.,  III.  the  General  Court,  of  October  7,1641 

30Q.)  (Mass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  342),  tlie  preamble 

2  Thcinstrumentofcession,  which  was  of  which  recites  both  the  claim  of  Mas- 
executed  by  the  patentees,  is  in  Mass.  sachusetts  by  patent  to  the  jurisdiction 
Col.  Rec,  I.  324.  (Comp  Ibid.,  I.  332.  assumed,  and  the  consent  of  the  in- 
AVinthrop,  II.  38,42.)  It  recites  that  habitants.  It  creates  a  provisional  gov-* 
the  inhabitants  residing  at  present  with-  ernment,  to  have  authority  "till  the 
in  the  limits  of  both  the  said  grants  had  ne.xt  General  Court,"  and  appoints  six 
of  late  and  formerly  complained  of  the  magistrates  to  administer  justice,  with 
wantof  some  good  government  amongst  "the  same  power  that  the  Quarter 
them,   and   desired   some  help  in  this  Courts  at  Salem  and  Ipswich  have." 


CiiAP.  XIV.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  593 

of  being  church-members,  Massachusetts  havmg  1643. 
now  become  strong  enough  to  admit  of  this  ^^^y^°- 
limited  deviation  from  her  fundamental  policy.^  Exeter^ 
before  long  followed  the  example  of  accession  ;^  and  Wheel- 
wright, still  jealous  of  the  power  of  Massachusetts,  besides 
being  yet  under  her  sentence  of  banishment,  withdrew 
himself  to  the  territory  of  Gorges.  The  three  towns  — 
with  Hampton,  which  had  been  planted  by  avowed  subjects 
of  Massachusetts,  and  with  the  neighboring  settlements 
of  Salisbury  and  Haverhill,  on  the  northern  bank  of  the 
Merrimack  —  were  made  to  constitute  one  of  the  four 
counties  into  which  Massachusetts  was  now  divided.* 
And  for  forty  years  this  relation  of  the  New  Hampshire 
towns  continued,  greatly  to  their  satisfaction  and  advan- 
tage. 

Meanwhile,  reasons  similar  to  those  which  satisfied 
the  groups  of  planters  about  the  Piscataqua  had  influ- 
enced a  party  of  settlers  on  the  remote  border  of  the 
patent  of  Gorges ;  and  Thomas  Purchas  and  his 

.  Annexation 

company,  who  had  sat  down  on  the  convenient  ofPcjepscot. 
spot  called  by  the  natives  Pejepscot  (now  Bruns-      i^-''^- 
wick),  sought  the  protection,  and  by  a  formal  in- 
strument submitted  themselves  to  the  jurisdiction,  of  the 
Governor  and  Company  of  Massachusetts  Bay.-^     Wheel- 
wright, on  leaving  Exeter  to   escape  from  that   govern- 
ment,  betook  himself,   with  some  adherents,   to      1^43, 
a   tract    adjoining    to    Agamenticus,    which    he    ^i^"'^'''- 
had  bought  of  Gorges,  and  gave  it  the  name  of  Wells.^ 
In  the  quiet  of  his  new  solitude,   his  past  course  pre- 
sented itself  to   his   reflections    under  a  diflerent  aspect 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec,  II.  29.  deed  to  Richard  Wharton  of  his  right 

2  See  above,  pp.  515,  516.  as  son  and  heir  to  George  "Way,  1683, 

3  Mass.  Col.  Rec,  II.  37,  38,  43.  alleged,  that  Way  and  Purchas  had  a 

4  See  below,  p.  617.  grant  of  the  territory  from  the  Coun- 

5  The  act  of  surrender  is  in  Hazard,  cil  of  Plymouth."  (Willis,  History  of 
I.  457.  —  How  long  Purchas  had  been  Portland,  41  ;  comp.  Ibid.,  14,  and 
on  this  land,  or  what  was  his  title  to  it,  Williamson,  I.  266,  290.) 

is  not  known.     "  Eleazer  Way,   in   a        ^  The  deed  of  it  is  in  Sullivan,  408. 
50* 


594  HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

from  what  it  had  worn  in  the  ardor  and  pride  of  con- 
flict. He  had  been  there  but  a  little  time  before  he 
resolved  to  seek  a  reconciliation  with  the  Massachusetts 
Sept.  10.  Magistrates  and  elders ;  and  he  Avrote  to  the 
Remission  Govcmor,  avowing  that  he  had  been  misled  by 
wr^htwn-  liis  "  own  distempered  passions."  He  professed 
tence.  hlmsclf  "  uufcigncdly    sorry    that   he  had   such 

a  hand  in  those  sharp  and  vehement  contentions";  that 
he  "  did  so  much  adhere  to  persons  of  corrupt  judgment, 
to  the  countenancing  of  them  in  any  of  their  errors  or 
evil  practices " ;  and  that  he  "  did  appeal."  He  "  con- 
fessed that  herein  he  had  done   very    sinfully,    and  he 

1(544.  humbly  craved  pardon."  To  a  letter  offering 
March  1.  i^^j^^  safe-conduct  to  Boston  he  sent  a  dignified 
reply,  distinguishing  between  the  offences  which  he  ac- 
knowledged and  those  which  he  disavowed.^  He  was 
answered  with  respect  and  courtesy;  and  at  the  next 
session  of  the  General  Court  his  sentence  of  banishment 
was  revoked,  "without  his  appearance."  lie  continued, 
however,  to  reside  with  his  new  community  a  short  time 
till  it  had  taken  root,  and  then  returned  to  the  neighbor- 
hood of  his  former  residence,  and  lived  seven  years  at 
Hampton.  Next  he  sailed  for  England,  where,  like 
other  ministers  from  New  England,  he  enjoyed  the 
special  regard  of  Cromwell.^ 

The  Lygonia,  or  Plough,^  patent  now  emerged  into 
The  piou  h  ^°^^  little  importance.  It  covered  a  territory, 
Patent.         forty    milcs    square,    including    the    lower    part 

^^^'-      of  the  river  Saco,  and  extending  northeastward- 

1  The  letters  are  in  "Winthrop,  II.     of  sanctity.     The  chief  part  of  his  prop- 
1C2,   163.  erty,  which  was  considerable,  had  re- 

2  He  is  said  to  have  had  a  college     mained  at  Wells. 

friendship   or   acquaintance    with    the  ^  The  latter  name,  according  to  some 

Protector.     After  the   Restoration,  he  authorities,  commemorated  the  agricul- 

returnod  to  America,  and  was  minister  tural  pursuits  of  the  first  colonists ;  ac- 

at  Salisbury,  where,  having  lived  to  be  cording  to  others,  it  was  the  name  of 

the  oldest  minister  in  New  England,  he  the  vessel  which  brought  tlveni  over, 

died,  November  15,  1679,  in  the  odor  See  above,  p.  397,  note. 


CHAr.  XIV.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  595 

ly  along  the  coast,  nearly  to  Casco  Bay.  The  patentees 
without  delay  made  some  attempts  at  settlement/  but 
met  with  difficulties,  and  were  soon  discouraged.^  At 
length,  after  the  turn  of  affairs  in  England,  the  1043. 
patent  was  purchased  from  the  holders  by  Alex-  ^p"'  ^• 
ander  Higby,  a  patriot  member  of  Parliament,  who  ap- 
pointed George  Cleaves  to  take  possession  and  adminis- 
tration of  his  property.  Cleaves  had  lived  some  years 
upon  it,  and  it  was  probably  at  his  instance  (for  he  was 
then  in  London)  that  the  purchase  was  made.  A  col- 
lision between  Cleaves  and  the  government  of  Gorges 
was  naturally  expected,  as  the  two  grants  conflicted 
with    each   other.     Cleaves,   arrivinc^  at   Boston, 

.  '  ^  '  1644. 

solicited  the  intervention  of  the  Massachusetts 
General  Court,  who,  however,  declined  to  interfere.  Pro- 
ceeding next  to  organize  a  government  upon  the  place, 
he  was  interrupted  by  a  remonstrance  from  Richard 
Vines,  who  had  been  left  at  the  head  of  Gorges's 
government,  on  the  recent  departure  of  the  Deputy- 
Governor  for  England.  Cleaves  sent  a  proposal  to  Saco, 
to  submit  the  question  provisionally  to  the  arbitration, 
of  the  Massachusetts  Magistrates ;  but  Vines  refused  to 
listen  to  it,  and  threw  the  messenger  into  prison.  Cleaves 
then  wrote  to  Boston,  repeating  his  application  for  aid, 
and  Vines  came  thither  to  represent  his  case  in  per- 
son ;  ^  but  neither  could  obtain  more  than  advice  to  re- 
main quiet  till  further  instructions  should  arrive  from 
England.  The  parties  were  not  strong  enough,  or  near 
enough,    to    threaten    each    other    with    serious    harm ; 

1  Winthrop,  I.  58.  proceedings.      It   is   signed    by    John 

2  Richard  Dummer  was  intrusted  Dye,  John  Roch,  Grace  Hardwin, 
by  the  patentees  with  the  management  Thomas  Inppe,  whom  Hubbard  (Nar- 
of  their  business,  when  he  came  over  in  rative  of  Indian  Wars,  Part  II.  p.  9) 
May,  1632.  Mr.  Charles  Deane  has  mentions  as  patentees,  and  by  eight 
an  original  letter  from  them  to  Win-  others.  It  was  brought  over  by  Aller- 
throp,  dated  December  1  of  that  year,  ton. 

in  which  they  complain  of  Dummer's        3  Winthrop,  U.  154,  155. 


596  HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

neither  probably  was  disposed,  by  the  rejection  of  the 
counsel,  to  supply  a  reason  for  the  inhabitants  of  the  Bay 
to  interpose  to  keep  the  peace  between  them ;  and  here 
the  controversy  rested  for  the  present.  The  loyal  and 
hearty  proprietor  of  Maine  was  now  involved  in  his 
king's  affairs ;  and  when,  if  not  before,  he  died,  as  he 
did  soon  after  his  capture  by  the  Parliamentary  forces  at 
Bristol,  his  Transatlantic  rights  fell  to  the  management 
of  hands  less  diligent  and  able. 

While  affairs  were  still  so  unsettled  on  the  northeastern 
outskirts,  the  religious  and  thrifty  people  of  Plymouth 
were  keeping  the  even  tenor  of  their  way.  Earnestly 
seeking  peace  and  order,  they  arrived  at  an  adjustment  of 
some  questions  which,  if  left  open,  would  have  been 
a  disturbance  to  their  posterity.  Their  first  pa- 
tent  had    defined   no   boundaries.      The    second 

1622. 

never  took  effect,  having  been  surrendered  by 
Pierce  in  the  sequel  of  a  dispute  with  the  Associates. 
The  grant  in  the  third  furnished  the  rule  for  determining 

the  line  between  the  jurisdictions  of  Massachu- 

1630.  " 

Jan.  13.    setts  and  Plymouth.     If  the    patents    conflicted 
Boundary      in  the  dcscriptious  of  the  territory  conveyed,  the 

question  ^     •  n    -mt  ^  ^  ^      • 

between  claim  01  Massachusctts  was  best,  as  benig  prior 
BeuTand"  i^  tlmo ;  but  it  was  maintained  by  Plymouth, 
riyraouth.  ^^^^^  the  other  colony  gave  an  unjustifiable  inter- 
pretation to  the  name  Charles  River,  in  holding  it  to 
extend  as  far  south  as  the  most  southerly  of  its  tribu- 
taries. The  Plymouth  planters  had  assigned  partly  to 
their  London  associates,  and  partly  to  actual  settlers,  cer- 
tain lands  at  a  place  called  Scitiiafe,  contiguous  to  the 
IMassachusetts  town  of  Hingham,  but  understood  by  the 
Plymouth  people  to  lie  within  their  own  northeastern 
border.  A  dispute  which  ensued  between  the  neighbors 
was  taken  up  by  their  respective  governments.  Commis- 
1R40.  sioners,  two  on  each  side,  met,  and  came  to  an 
juneiG.    agreement,   which   proved   mutually  satisfactory 


Chap.  XIV.]  PLYMOUTH.  597 

for  the  present,'  though,  under  a  change  of  cir- 


1G64. 


cumstances,  it  ^vas  revised  at  a  later  time.^ 

The  patent  from  the  Council  for  New  England,  under 
which  the  lands  continued  to  be  held,  was  a  grant  to 
"  William  Bradford,  his  heirs,  associates,  and  assigns." 
The  freemen,  being  now  dispersed  through  seven  ^  towns 
in  addition  to  Plymouth,  desired  legal  possession  of  the 
common  property ;  and  Bradford  executed  an  in-  conveyance 
strument,  bv  which,  after  certain  reservations  for  o*"  "'e  patent 

"  of  Plymouth 

the    "Purchasers   or   Old    Comers,'"*  he   surren-  tothefree- 
dered  "  into  the  hands  of  the  whole  Court,  con-     ^"g^j 
sisting  of  the  freemen  of  the  corporation  of  New   ^^^^""^^ 
Plymouth,  all  that  other  right  and  title,  power,  authority, 
privileges,  immunities,  and  freedoms,  granted  in  the  said 
letters  patents  by  the  said  Right  Honorable  Council  for 
New  England." 

The  vexatious  business  with  the  English  partners  was 
brought  to  a  partial  settlement  by  their  consent  to  give 
a  full  discharge  on  the  receipt  of  twelve  hundred  settlement 
pounds.^     One  of  them,  Andrews,  "a  haberdasher  "'"'"''« 

^  London 

in  London,  a  godly  man,"  presented  five  hundred  partners. 
pounds,  his  share  of  the  proceeds,  to  the  Massa-    °"'''  ^^' 
chusetts   Colony,    "  to  be  laid  out   in   cattle,   and  other 
course  of  trade  for  the  poor."*^     The  eight  men  of  Ply- 
mouth,^ having  made  a  scrupulously  high  valuation,  on 
oath,   of  the  effects  in   their  hands,  had  not  only  been 

1  Bradford,  3G7-372.  —  The  com-  who  had  purchased  from  the  original 
mission  of  Plymouth  to  W^inslow  and  Adventurers  at  the  end  of  the  seven 
Bradford  is  in  the  ^Massachusetts  Ar-  years'  partnership.  (See  above,  p. 
chives  (III.  432).  The  plan  of  Wood-  228.)  In  this  he  differs  from  Baylies 
ward  and  Saffery,  surveyors,  is  in  the  (Hist,  of  Plym.  Col.,  308)  and  from 
same  collection  (Ibid.,  1).  Judge  Davis  (Morton's  Memorial,  403). 

2  See  Mass.  Col.  Pvec,  TV.  Part  II.  5  Bradford,  379-382;  comp.  323, 
114-116.  327,  331,  343,  348,  361,  365,  374. 

3  See  above,  p.  547.  6  Winthrop,   II.    75. — Beauchamp, 

4  They  were  fifty-eight  in  number,  however,  continued  to  make  difficulties, 
(Hazard,!  4GG.)  Mr.  Deane  (Bradford,  and  his  claim  was  not  set  at  rest  till 
372)  gives  good  reasons  for  understand-  ten  years  later. 

ing  "  Old  Comers  "  to  denote  the  persons         "^  See  above,  p.  230. 


598  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  L 

great  losers,  but  considered  themselves  to  have  been  very 
hardly  treated.^  And  the  case  turned  out  still  worse  than 
their  fears,  when,  in  consequence  of  the  arrest  of  emigra- 
tion occasioned  by  the  altered  state  of  affairs  in  the  par- 
ent country,  the  value  of  their  salable  property  was  ex- 
cessively depressed.  The  price  of  a  cow  fell  in  a  month 
from  twenty  pounds  to  five,  and  of  a  goat  from  three 
pounds  to  ten  shillings ;  ^  and  the  prospect  was  so  dark, 
that  thoughts  of  removal  were  again  entertained,^  which 
probably  nothing  short  of  a  local  attachment  matured 
imder  the  severest  experiences  could  have  overcome. 

And  the  strength  of  this  sentiment  was  tried  at  the 
critical  moment  by  an  event,  which,  if  suited  to  weaken 
Death  of  it  in  one  class  of  minds,  would  be  likely  to  give 
"  \m3  ^^  double  force  in  another.  "  Their  reverend 
April  18.  elder,"  writes  Bradford,  "  and  my  dear  and  loving 
friend,  Mr.  William  Brewster,"  died ;  "  a  man  that  had 
done  and  suffered  much  for  the  Lord  Jesus  and  the  Gos- 
pel's sake,  and  had  borne  his  part  in  weal  and  woe  with 
this  poor  persecuted  church  above  thirty-six  years,  in 
England,  Holland,  and  in  this  wilderness,  and  done  the 
Lord  and  them  faithful  service  in  his  place  and  call- 
ing. And,  notwithstanding  the  many  troubles  he  passed 
through,  the  Lord  upheld  him  to  a  great  age.  He  was 
near  fourscore  years  of  age,  if  not  all  out,  when  he  died. 
He  had  this  blessing  added  by  the  Lord  to  all  the  rest,  to 
die  in  his  bed  in  peace,  amongst  the  midst  of  his  friends, 
who  mourned  and  wept  over  him,  and  ministered  what 
help  and  comfort  they  could  unto  him,  and  he  again  re- 
comforted  them  whilst  he  could.  His  sickness  was  not 
long,  and  till  the  last  day  thereof  he  did  not  wholly  keep 
his  bed.     His  speech  continued  till  somewhat  more  than 

1  "  That   which   made   them  so  de-  selves   to   sustain  the   greatest   wrong, 

sirous  to  bring   things  to  an  end,  was  and    had    most    cause  of   coni])laint." 

partly  to  stop  the  clamors  and  asper-  (Bradford,  37G  ;  comp.  378,  371). ) 

sions  raised  and  cast  upon  them  here-  ^  Ibid.^  376. 

about,   though    they   conceived    them-  2  Ibid.,  384. 


Chap.  XIV.]  PLYMOUTH.  599 

half  a  day,  and  then  failed  him ;  and  about  nine  or  ten 
o'clock  that  evening  he  died  without  any  pangs  at  all. 
A  few  hours  before,  he  drew  his  breath  short,  and  some 
few  minutes  before  his  last  he  drew  his  breath  long,  as 
a  man  fallen  into  a  sound  sleep,  without  any  pangs  or 
gaspings ;   and  so  sweetly  departed  this  life  unto  a  better." 

"  I  should  say  something  of  his  life,"  the  bereft  friend 
continues,  "  if  to  say  a  little  were  not  worse  than  to 
be  silent."  But  he  cannot  dismiss  the  theme,  Hischarac- 
and  pauses  with  a  fond  detail,  too  earnest  to  '"■ 
admit  a  word  of  ambitious  eulogy,  on  the  series  of  dis- 
tant and  long  past  scenes  through  which  the  writer 
and  the  departed  had  walked  hand  in  hand.  Then  the 
record  passes  off  into  what  is  not  so  much  a  delineation 
of  his  character,  as  a  thanksgiving  to  God,  who,  for  the 
joy  of  all  who  knew  him,  and  the  good  of  all  whom 
he  could  serve,  made  him  so  brave  and  gentle,  so  faith- 
ful and  generous,  so  frank  and  sympathizing,  so  "  peace- 
able, sociable,  and  pleasant,"  so  wise,  modest,  devout, 
and  useful ;  and  it  comes  to  a  fit  close  with  discourse 
on  the  high  tendencies  by  which  strength  is  unfolded 
from  infirmity,  and  trouble  blossoms  into  joy.  Through 
the  sorrows  and  struggles  of  these  upright  men,  "  it  was 
God's  visitation  that  preserved  their  spirits."  ^ 

Brewster  had  retired  from  courts  before  he  became 
known  to  the  associate  of  his  later  eventful  years.  When 
Brewster  died,  Bradford  was  fifty-three  years  old.  The 
boy,  walking  on  Sundays  along  an  English  hedge-row 
path  to  seek  unlicensed  edification  at  the  lips  of  Robin- 
son and  Clifton,  had  first  looked  on  Brewster  with  the 
veneration  which  a  neophyte  feels  for  the  veteran  who 
may  soon  be  a  martyr.  Then,  in  a  company  of  men 
and   women   devoted   like   themselves,   they  had   passed 

1  Bradford,  408-415.  —  Brewster's  two  hundred  and  seventy-five  volumes, 
library  was  the  principal  part  of  the  sixty-four  of  them  being  in  the  learned 
estate  which  he  left.     It  consisted  of    languages. 


600  HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

over  the  sea,  through  and  towards  many  sufFenngs,  and 
for  ten  years  had  earned  a  hard  liveUhood  by  unaccus- 
tomed labor.  Next,  coming  to  this  "  outside  of  the 
world,"  they  had  survived  cold,  famine,  and  a  pesti- 
lence which  through  three  months  had  employed  them 
in  nursing  and  burying  as  many  of  their  associates  as 
it  left  alive.  With  others  worthy  of  confidence  and 
esteem,  they  had  given  their  harmonious  direction  to 
the  common  counsels,  —  themselves  the  most  trusted  and 
revered  of  all,  —  and  had  lived  to  see  the  issue  of  their 
generous  cares  in  the  establishment  of  an  humble  but 
prosperous  commonwealth.  All  that  had  happened  be- 
tween the  first  meeting  at  Scrooby  Manor  and  the  present 
hour  rose  to  the  mind  of  the  writer,  who,  from  laying 
in  the  earth  the  form  longer  familiar  to  his  eyes  than 
any  they  could  ever  look  upon  again,  turned  back  to 
duties  thenceforward  to  be  fulfilled  with  less  experi- 
enced companionship. 

All  this  time  New  Haven  and  Connecticut  lay  secure 
from  England  behmd  the  shield  of  Massachusetts.  AVhat 
relations  they  in  their  obscurity  and  remoteness  sustained 
to  the  parent  country  were  subject  to  the  influences  of 
a  transmission^  through  the  older  colony. 

The  settlers  at  New  Haven  had  intended  to  employ 

themselves  in  the  commercial  industry  to  which 

and  consoii-   tlicy  had  been  used,  and  had  chosen  their  site 

JjewVaven    with  referouce   to  its  convenience  for  this  pur- 

coioiiy.         g^^^^    With  the  same  view,  they  also  purchased 

1641.      lands  and  established  a  plantation  on  Delaware 

Aug.  30.  1    •     1        1        1      1  1 

Bay,  near  to  a  tort  which  had  been  erected 
by  some  Swedes.  But  their  commercial  undertakings 
did  not  prosper;  and  as,  one  after  another,  agricultural 
communities  grew  up  around  them,  their  employments 
came   to  assimilate  themselves    to    those    of  the  rest  of 

1  N.  II.  Col.  Rec,  57,  106. 


Chap.  XIV.]  NEW  HAVEN.  601 

the  country.^     They  had  obtamed  their  lands  of  the  na- 
tives by  a  payment  of  clothes,  tools,  and  uten-      ic^g. 
sils,  added  to  a  promise  of  protection  from  hostile    ^"'''  ^'^' 
tribes ;  —  a  process  which  was  repeated  from  time    ^^'''  ^^' 
to  time,  in  successive  extensions  to  the  immediate  neigh- 
borhood, and  in  detached  settlements.      Thus,  under  the 
auspices  of  the  government  at  New  Haven,  South-  souuihoid. 
hold  was  established  near  the  eastern  end  of  Long      'f  "• 

tJ       October. 

Island,  by  a  company  from  Norfolk  in  England ;    Stamford. 
Stamford  was  founded,  fifteen  miles  west  of  the     ^'^■*^- 
Connecticut  town  of  Fairfield,  chiefly  by  a  party  who  had 
taken  offence  at  Wethersfield ;   and  an  attempt  Greenwich, 
was  made  at  Greenwich,  still  nearer  to  the  New-      ^''■*"- 
Netherland  border.     This  frontier  town  was,  however,  for 
some  time  in  revolt.     Captain  Patrick,  from  Watertown,^ 
the  principal  person  among  its  settlers,  took  advantage  of 
an  alarm  which  prevailed  of  a  rising  of  the  Indians,  to 
induce  his  neighbors  to  submit  themselves  to  the  Dutch; 
and,  goino:   to  Fort  Amsterdam,  he,  for  himself 

'     O  O  '  April  9. 

and    them,    took    an    oath    of  allegiance    to   the 
States-General.^ 

It   was    ordered    that    semiannual   General    Courts   in 
April  and  in  October  should  be  "held  at  New      1640. 
Haven  for  the  plantations   in  combination  with    ^p"^''^- 
this  town,"  ^  which  as  yet  (if  indeed  Greenwich  is  ito  be 

1  "  They  laid  out  too  much  of  their  he    was    admitted    a    member    of  the 

stocks  and  estates   in  building  of  fair  church  of  Watertown  and  a  freeman, 

and  stately  houses,   wherein   they,   at  But  he  grew  very  proud  and  vicious. 

the  first,  outdid  the   rest  of  the  coun-     And,   perceiving   that   he   was 

try."     (Hubbard,  334.)  discovered,  and  that  such  evil  courses 

■2  See  above,  pp.  319,  464.  would  not  be  endured  here,  and  being 

3  Brodhead,  Ilistory  of  New  York,  withal  of  a  vain   and   unsettled  dispo- 

330.  —  Patrick  had  lived  in  the  Nctli-  sition,  he  went  from  us,  and  sat  down 

erlands,   Avhere   he    married   a   Dutch  within  twenty  miles  of  the  Dutch,  and 

wife.     Winthrop  says  (II.  151)  :  "This  put   himself   under   their   protection." 

captain    was    entertained    by    us    out  He  did  not  live  there  long.    InlG43,  a 

of  Holland   (where    he   was    a    com-  Dutchman  shot  him  dead,  in  a  quar- 

mon  soldier  of  the  Prince's  guard)  to  rel,  in  Underbill's  house  at  Stamford, 

exercise   our  men.     AVe  made  him  a  (Ibid) 

captain   and   maintained   him.     After,  •*  N.  H.  Col.  Bee,  70. 

VOL.  I.  51 


October. 


602  HISTOEY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

included)  were  only  the  three  that  have  been  just  men- 
tioned.    The  next  year  Guilford  determined  to  renounce 
an  independence  which  experience  had  shown  to  be  more 
dignified    than    convenient,    and    was    received    into    the 
1C43.      "  combination  "  ;  and,  in  the  record,  the  descrip- 
"'"'^  *^-     tion  of  the  General  Court  as  being  held    "  for 
the  plantations  within  this  jurisdiction  "  now  first  occurs.' 
Three  months  later,  Milford  annexed  itself,  and 
the    colony    of   New    Haven    was    fully   consti- 
tuted.    On  this  occasion  a  difficulty  occurred.     Milford 
had  "  formerly  taken  in,   as  free  burgesses,  six  planters 
who  were  not  in  church-fellowship."     New  Haven  could 
consent  to  no  alliance  on  such  a  basis.     She  agreed  that 
"  the   six  freemen   already  admitted  might  con- 

Oct.  23.  .  .  . 

tinue  to  act  in  all  proper  particular  town  busi- 
ness wherein  the  combination  was  not  interested,"  and 
might  "  vote  in  the  election  of  Deputies  to  be  sent  to 
the  General  Courts  for  the  combination  or  jurisdiction." 
But  this  was  on  condition  that  those  Deputies  should 
"  always  be  church-members " ;  that  "  the  six  free  bur- 
gesses who  were  not  church-members  should  not  at  any 
time  thereafter  be  chosen  either  Deputies,  or  into  any 
public  trust  for  the  combination " ;  that  they  should 
"  neither  personally,  nor  by  proxy,  vote  at  any  time  in 
the  election  of  Magistrates  " ;  and  that  none  should  "  be 
admitted  freemen  or  free  burgesses  thereafter,  at  Mil- 
ford, but  church-members."  ^    By  the  next  "  Gen- 

Oct.  27.  .... 

cral  Court    for   the   jurisdiction "  this    arrange- 
ment was  confirmed. 

At  the  same  time,  rulers  were  chosen  for  the  newly 
constituted  community.  Theophilus  Eaton  was  elected 
Governor,  with  Stephen  Goodyearc,  of  New  Haven,  for 
Deputy-Governor,  and  Thomas  Gregson  of  the  same 
town,  William    Fowler   and   Edmund  Tapp    of  Milford, 

1  N.  II.  Col.  Rec,  96,  97.     See  above,        2  N.  n.  Col.  Kec,  110. 
p.  535. 


Chap.  XIV.]  CONNECTICUT.  603 

and  Thurston  E.ayner  of  Stamford,  for  Magistrates.  A 
system  of  judicial  administration  was  instituted.  Each 
plantation  was  to  choose  for  itself  "  ordinary  judges,  to 
hear  and  determine  all  inferior  causes."  From  the 
"  Plantation  Courts  "  was  to  lie  an  appeal  to  the  "  Court 
of  Magistrates "  (consisting  of  the  Governor,  Deputy- 
Governor,  and  Assistants),  who  were  also  to  have  origi- 
nal jurisdiction  in  "  weighty  and  capital  cases,  whether 
civil  or  criminal " ;  and  from  the  latter  tribunal  appeals 
and  complaints  might  be  made,  and  brought  to  the  Gen- 
eral Court  as  the  highest  for  the  jurisdiction.  In  the 
determination  of  appeals,  "  with  whatsoever  else  should 
fall  within  their  cognizance  or  judicature,"  the  Courts 
were  to  "  proceed  according  to  the  Scriptures,  which  is 
the  rule  of  all  righteous  laws  and  sentences."  ^ 

A  list,  taken  in  the  same  year,  of  "  the  planters "  in 
the  town  of  New  Haven,  exhibits  the  names  of  a  hun- 
dred and  twenty-two  persons,  including  eight  w^omen. 
A  reckoning  of  their  family  dependents  swelled  the  num- 
ber to  four  hundred  and  sixteen  ;  but  it  is  known  that 
some  of  these  never  came  to  America.  The  aggregate 
property  of  the  planters  was  rated  at  thirty-six  thou- 
sand three  hundred  and  thirty-seven  pounds  sterling,^ 

In  Connecticut,  whose  constitution  did  not  permit  the 
immediate  re-election  of  a  Governor,  the  choice  Magistrates  of 
for    that    office    in    three    successive    years    fell  Connecticut. 
upon  John  Haynes,  George  Wyllys,^  and  John 

1  N.  li.  Col.  Rec,  112- IIG.  (Collections  of  the  New  York  Historl- 

2  Ibid,  91-93.  —  De  Vries  roman-  cal  Society,  Second  Series,  I.  2G1.) 
ces  oil  New  Haven.  In  the  Journal  of  3  George  Wyllys  was  the  possessor 
his  Third  Voyage,  he  writes:  "  We  ar-  of  a  good  landed  property  in  Warwick- 
rived  the  next  evening  [June  4,  1639]  shire.  In  1636  he  sent  over  twenty 
at  Roodeherg  \_Red  Hill,  New  Haven],  servants,  to  prepai-e  a  residence  for  him 
a  fine  harbor,  and  found  that  the  Eng-  at  the  place  soon  afterwards  called 
lish  were  building  a  fine  town,  having  Hartford.  In  1638  he  came  over,  and 
already  erected  upwards  of  three  hun-  in  the  next  two  years  was  chosen  a 
dred  houses  and  a  handsome  church."  Magistrate.     In  1641  he  was  Deputy- 


GOl  EISTOKY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

Haynes  again,  while  Wyllys,  Ludlow,  and  Hopkins 
successively  filled  the  second  place.  These  four  gen- 
tlemen were  always  Assistants  when  they  occupied  no 
higher  position;  and  their  colleagues  in  the  magistracy 
were  mostly  the  same  from  year  to  year.  The  connection 
of  Pynchon's  settlement^  with  the  lower  towns  was  of 
brief  duration,  and  had  not  been  well  defined  even  while 
it  lasted.^  There  had  been  disagreements  with  him  from 
the  first,^  and  Massachusetts  had  always  regarded  his  plan- 
tation as  lying  within  her  territory  as  described  by  the 
charter.^     At  length,  on  a  petition  of  Pynchon  and  his 

company  to  the  General  Court  at  Boston,  Spring- 
separation       ,,  ni-  1     r   A  1 
of  Springfield  field  (as  it  was  now  called,  instead  or  Agawam,  the 

necucu"."      Iiidiau   name  which  it  had  hitherto  borne)  was 

^^'"-      reconjnized  as   fallinc:  within  the   iurisdiction   of 
Junes.     -,,  ,  .     . 

Massachusetts ;  and  commissioners  were  appoint- 
ed "  to  lay  out  the  south  line"  of  that  Colony,  to  be  joined 
by  such  as  Connecticut  might  designate  for  the  pur- 
pose.^ 

After  three  years,  this  loss  to  Connecticut  was  more 
than  made  up  by  two  additions.  A  company  consisting 
of  "  about  forty  families,"  from  Lynn  in  Massachusetts, 

"  findiui?    themselves    straitened,"  °    had    boufrht 

1G40-1G41.  ^  ^  . 

land  of  the  Indians  on  the  south  side  of  Long 
Island,  near  its  eastern  end,  and  there  begun  a  plantation 
which  they  called  Southampton.  For  a  while  they  formed 
an  independent  community  ;    but,   learning   from    expe- 

Governor;  in  1G42,  Governor;  and  in  3  IbiJ.,  13,  10. 
1643    and    1G44,    a  Magistrate    again.  ^  W'intlirop,  I.  285. 
March    9,    1645,    he  died,   leaving   a  5  ]\iass.  Col.  Kec,  I.  320,  323.    I  be- 
greatly  honored  name.  lieve  that  the  petition  of  Pynchon  and 

1  See  above,  p.  454.  his  friends  is  tlie  earliest  document  in 

2  For  establishing  the  constitution  which  the  name  Sprinffjield  occurs, 
in  1639,  it  was  only  "the  inhabitants  Hutchinson  says  (I.  95), that  Pynchon's 
and  residents  of  AVindsor,  Hartford,  English  home  had  been  at  Springfield, 
and  Wcthersfield"  who  came  together,  near  Chelmsford,  in  Essex. 

(Conn.  Col.  llec.,  21.)  6  Wiuthrop,  II.  4. 


Chap.  XIV.]  CONNECTICUT.  605 

rience  the  disadvantages  of  this  condition,  they  entered  into 
an  agreement  to  "associate  and  join  themselves  Accession  of 
to  the  jurisdiction  of  Connecticut " ;  and  their  °"^^'|^^'"p'°"- 
Deputies  were  admitted  to  the  General  Court  of  o".  25. 
that  colony.'  A  more  important  accession  was  that  of 
the  settlement  at  Saybrook.  On  condition  of  receiving 
the  avails,  for  ten  years,  of  certain  duties  to  be  collected 
from  all  vessels  passing  out  of  the  river,  and  of  certain 
taxes  on  the  domestic  trade  in  beaver  and  on  live  stock, 
Fenwick  conveyed  the  fort,  with  its  armament  and  "  ap- 
purtenances," and  the  "land  upon  the  river,"  except  such 
as  was  already  private  property,  to  "the  jurisdic-  orsaybrook. 
tion  of  Connecticut."  ^  He  further  covenanted  to  "^''•^' 
obtain  for  that  jurisdiction  the  property  of  "  all  the  lands 
from  Narragansett  Eiver  to  the  fort  of  Saybrook,  men- 
tioned in  a  patent  granted  by  the  Earl  of  Warwick  to 

certain  nobles    and  gentlemen, if  it  came  into  his 

power."  ^ 

The  government  of  Connecticut  w^as  not  less  tender 
than  that  of  New  Haven  of  the  rights  of  the  Indians. 
Strict  laws  protected  them  from  ill  treatment  on  Theconnect- 
the  part  of  the  whites  ;  and,  to  disabuse  them  of '"''  ^"'"''"'• 
imaginary  grounds  of  dissatisfaction,  purchases  of  the 
same  tracts  were  often  repeated.  Still  they  were  restless, 
and  from  time  to  time  occasioned  alarms.  The  Connect- 
icut people  were  hardly  dissuaded  by  those  of  1G39. 
New   Haven   from    sending   a  hundred   men   to    ^"s^^t- 

1  Conn.  Col.  Kec,  112.  For  a  or  for  the  old  patent  of  Connecticut." 
"  Copy  of  the  Combination  of  South-  And  in  this  statement  he  has  been  too 
ampton  with  Hartford,"  see  Ibid.,  566.  confidingly   followed    by    recent    writ- 

2  Ibid.,  119,  266,  568.  ers.    Indeed,  he  had  been  preceded  by 

3  For  this  important  clause  of  the  Hutchinson,  who  says  (I.  9  7,  note)  : 
agreement,  see  Conn.  Col.  Rec,  268.  "The  Connecticut  people  purchased 
It  has  been  greatly  misunderstood,  the  title  of  the  Lords  of  Mr.  Fenwick." 
Trumbull,  generally  so  exact,  says  The  truth  is,  no  such  purchase  was 
(History,  I.  150,  comp.  118,  237):  made;  and  that  there  was  none,  was 
"  The  colony,  on  the  whole,  paid  Mr.  the  occasion  of  much  subsequent,  incon- 
Fenwick  sixteen  hundred  pounds  ster-  venience  and  litigation. 

ling,  merely  for  the  jurisdiction  right, 

51* 


606  HISTORY   OF   NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  T. 

chastise  some  disorderly  natives,  complained  of  by  the 
planters  at  Wethersfleld.'  Some  Pequots,  returning  to 
their  old  home,  were  dispersed  by  Mason  at  the  head  of 
forty  men,  with  a  party  of  Mohegan  allies ;  but  he  care- 
fully abstained  from  bloodshed,  contenting  himself  with 
destroying  their  wigwams  and  carrying  off  their  corn.^ 
The  local  disorders,  which  occurred  afterwards,  proved  to 
be  not  too  serious  to  be  readily  quelled  by  a  due  mixture 
of  vigor  and  conciliation. 

The  plantations  about  Narragansett  Bay  were  still  but 
loosely  organized.  Their  quarrels  with  each  other,  and 
those  of  the  several  plantations  within  themselves,  had 
relations  sq  large  and  durable,  that  the  recital  of  them 
cannot  be  conveniently  begun  in  this  volume.  It  has 
been  mentioned,  that,  the  first  fervor  of  indignation 
over,  several  of  the  Antinomian  fugitives  to  Aquetnet  re- 
turned to  Massachusetts,^  where  some  of  them  were  to 
resume  their  natural  position  as  influential  citizens.  Mrs. 
Hutchinson,  having  become  a  widow,"*  removed,  •with 
most  of  her  family,  to  a  spot  within  or  near  the  Dutch 
Proceedings  bordcr.^  Coddiugton  was  rechosen  Governor  of 
Island!  °      the  Island,  and  Brenton  Deputy-Governor,  from 

1  Conn.  Col.  Rec,  31,  32.  ■*  Governor  Hutchinson  (History,  I. 

2  Ibid.  —  jNIason,  History,  &c.,  18.  72)  says  that  William  Hutchinson  died 

3  See  above,  p.  509.  —  Aspinwall,  it     "about  the  year  1642." 

so.ems,    was    no    better    satisfied    with         5  jJer  descendant  says  (Hutchinson, 

Hutchinson's   government    (see  above,  ibid.)   that  she   removed   from  Rhode 

p.   514)   than  he  had  been  with  Cod-  Island,   because   she   was   "dissatisfied 

dington's.     In   October,   1G41,   he  had  with   the   people    or   place."  —  "  Mis- 

"  a  safe-conduct  granted  him  to  come  tress  Hutchinson,   being  Aveary  of  the 

and  satisfy  the  Council "  of  ^lassachu-  Island,  or  rather   the  Island  weary  of 

setts.    (]\Iass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  338.)     A  few  her,  departed  from  thence  with  all  her 

months  after,  "  upon   his   petition  and  family,  her  daughter  and  her  children, 

certificate  of  his  good  carriage,"  he  was  to  live  under  the  Dutch,  near  a  place 

"  restored  again  to  his  former  liberty  called  by  seamen,  and  in  the  map,  Hell- 

and  freedom"  (Ibid.,  II.  3),  and  was  Gate."    (Welde,  Short  Story,  &c.,  Pref- 

"  reconciled   to  the  church  of  Boston,  ace.) — Mr.  Brodhead  (History  of  New 

He  made  a  very  free  and  full  acknowl-  York,   I.  334)    supposes  —  I   presume 

edgment  of  liis  error  and  seduccmcnt,  correctly  —  that  he  has  identified  the 

and  that  witli  much  detestation  of  his  spot, 
sin."     (Winthrop,  H.  C2.) 


Chap.  XIV.]  EHODE  ISLAND.  607 

year  to  year.^      General  Courts  were  at  first  ordered  to 
be   holden  in  every   ^larch   and    October,  alter-      1040. 
nating,  as  to  place,  between  Newport  and  Ports-    ^"^•^• 
mouth.^      After    two    years'    trial,    one    General      1542. 
Court  in  each  year  was  thought   sufficient.^     It    ^'"'''• 
was  "  ordered,  and  unanimously  agreed  upon,"  as  follows : 
"  That  the  government  which  this  body  politic  doth  attend 
unto,  in  this  island  and  the  jurisdiction  thereof,  in  favor 
of  our  prince,  is  a  democracy,  or  popular  government ; 
that  is  to  say,  it  is  in  the  power  of  the  freemen  orderly 
assembled,  or  the  major  part  of  them,  to  make  or  consti- 
tute just  laws  by  which  they  will  be  regulated, 
and  to  depute  from  among  themselves  such  min- 
isters as  shall  see  them  faithfully  executed  between  man 
and  man."  "* 

The  early  laws  for  the  most  part  related  to  matters  of 
police,  to  the  extirpation  of  noxious  wild  animals,  and  to 
military  preparations  for  defence  against  the  Indians.^  It 
was  ordered  that  the  Colony  seal  should  be  "  a  sheaf  of 
arrows  bound  up,  and  in  the  liess  or  bond  this  motto 
indented :  Amor  vincet  omnia.''  ^  The  provision  for  liberty 
of  conscience  was,  "  that  none  be  accounted  a  delin- 
quent for  doctrine,  provided  it  be  not  directly  repug- 
nant to  the  government  or  laws  established."  ^  After  the 
Long  Parliament  met,  the  loyalty  of  the  Colony  expressed 
itself  less  explicitly  than  it  had  before  done,  in  the  order 
"  that,  if  any  person  or  persons  on  this  island, 
whether  freeman  or  inhabitant,  shall  by  any 
means,  open   or   covert,  endeavor  to  bring  in  any  other 

1  R.I.  Col.  Rec,  I.  101,  112,  120,  among  Christians."  —  The  removal  of 
126,  127.  Coddington  and  his  friends  to  the  south- 

2  Ibid.,  106.  ern  end  of  the  island  had  brought  them 

3  Ibid.,  123.  into  close  proximity  to  the  Narragan- 

4  Ibid.,  112.  setts,  whose  dispositions  they  watched 

5  Yet  AVinthrop  heard  (11.  40)  that  -with  solicitude. 

"divers  of  them would  not  wear         6  J^.  I.  Col.  Rec.,  I.  115. 

any  arms,  and  denied  all  magistracy        "^  Ibid.,  113;comp.  118. 


G08  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

power  than  what  is  now  estabhshed,  (except  it  be  from 
our  prince  by  lawful  commission,)  he  shall  be  accounted 
a  delinquent  under  the  head  of  perjury."  ^  By  the  end 
1G42.  of  another  year,  the  hope  that  the  time  had  come 
Sept.  19.  £q^.  obtaining  Transatlantic  protection  for  the  in- 
fant settlement  had  revived,"  and  led  to  an  order  for 
the  appointment  of  a  committee  "  to  consult  about  the 
procuration  of  a  patent  for  this  island  and  islands  and 
the  land  adjacent,  and  to  draw  up  petition  or  petitions, 
and  to  send  letter  or  letters  for  the  same  end  to  Sir 
Henry  Yane."  ^ 

The  planters  at  Providence  entertained  the  same  de- 
sign. They  too  felt  strongly  the  desirableness  of  a  recog- 
iiition  in  England,  on  account  of  their  want  of  any  title 
to  their  lands  except  what  was  derived  from  the  natives, 
their  dissensions  among  themselves,  their  isolation  from 
the  more  flourishing  colonies  around  them,  and  the  dis- 
trust with  which  they  felt  themselves  to  be  regarded 
by  their  compatriots  in  America.  The  character  of 
Koger  Williams,  no  less  than  his  personal  relations  to 
Henry  Vane,  recommended  him  for  employment  in  the  ser- 
vice proposed ;  and  he  embarked  for  England,  sailing  from 
New  Amsterdam  because  still  under  the  sentence  of  banish- 
ment from  Massachusetts.  While  awaiting  the  departure 
of  the  vessel  that  was  to  convey  him,  he  is  said  to  have 
found  occasion  for  his  distinctive  office  as  a  peacemaker 
with  the  Indians,  and  to  have  had  the  happiness  to 
allay  their  fury  against  the  Dutch  settlers  in  that  re- 
gion.'* He  employed  the  leisure  of  his  outward 
voyage  in  writing  his  "Key  into  the  Language 


1G43. 
March. 


1  R.  I.  Col.  Rec,  I.  118.  I  am  not  by  tlie  mediation  of  Mr.  Williams,  who 
sure  tliat  this  was  not  a  measure  of  Avas  then  there  to  go  in  a  Dutch  ship 
I)rec'aution  against  apprehended  en-  for  England,  were  pacified,  and  peace 
croachment  from  Massachusetts.  re-established  between  the  Dutch  and 

2  See  above,  p.  514.  them."  —  Williams,  hoAvever,  referring, 

3  R.  I.  Col.  Rec.,  I.  125.  in  a  Memorial  to  the  General  Court  of 

4  Winthrop  says  (II.  97):   "These,  Massachusetts,  October  5,  1654,  to  this 


Chap.  XIV.] 


PROVIDENCE. 


609 


of  America."      In   England,  whither  he  came  just  after 
the  death  of  Hampden,  he  was  well  received  in   j^^^^^yj, 
the  his:!!  quarters   to   which  his  mission  direct-   i'»ms'n 

O         ^  .  ,  England. 

ed  him,  and  was  for  a  time  the  guest  of  Henry 
Vane.  Here  he  immediately  published  his  "  Key,"  and 
his  treatise  entitled  "  Mr.  Cotton's  Letter,  lately  printed, 
examined  and  answered."  The  views  respecting  free- 
dom of  conscience,  which  he  so  prized,  now  fell  in  with 
a  current  of  thought  in  the  elevated  circles  in  which 
he  moved,^  and  were  sure  of  favorable  attention ;  and  his 
first  publications  were  followed  in  the  next  year  by  that 
of  his  "  Bloody  Tenent  of  Persecution  for  Cause  of  Con- 
science." ~ 


visit  of  his  to  New  Amsterdam,  speaks 
of  the  war  with  the  Indians  as  going  on 
when  he  sailed  from  that  port,  and  says 
nothing  of  any  mediation  of  his  to  arrest 
it.  (R.  I.  Hist.  Col.,  III.  155  )  At 
all  events,  the  strife  was  not  composed  ; 
for  in  September,  1G43,  some  six  months 
after  Williams's  departure,  j\Irs.  Hutch- 
inson, in  an  inroad  of  the  Indians  into 
the  Dutch  country,  lost  her  life.  With 
her  they  murdered  all  of  her  household, 
except  a  daughter  eight  years  of  age, 
whom  they  carried  into  captivity.  The 
General  Court  of  IMassachusetts  took 
measures  to  recover  the  child,  (Mass. 
Col.  Ree.,  II.  52,)  who,  after  four  years, 
was  obtained  from  the  Indians  by  the 
Dutch,  and  restored  to  her  friends  in 
Boston.     (Winthrop,  II.  2G7.) 


1  "  Mine  own  ears  were  glad  and  late 
witnesses  of  a,  heavenly  speech  of  one 
of  the  most  eminent  of  that  high  as- 
sembly of  Parliament ;  viz.  '  ^Vliy 
should  the  labors  of  any  be  suppressed, 
if  sober,  though  never  so  different  ? 
"We  now  profess  to  seek  God  ;  we  de- 
sire to  see  hght,'  &c."  (^Villiams, 
Preflice  to  Mr.  Cotton's  Letter,  lately 
printed,  &c.) 

2  See  above,  p.  415,  note.  The 
"  Bloody  Tenent  of  Persecution,"  first 
issued  anonymously,  was  in  answer  to 
a  reply  by  Cotton  to  a  tract  entitled, 
"  Scriptures  and  Reasons  written  out 
long  since  by  a  Witness  of  Jesus 
Christ,  close  Prisoner  in  Newgate, 
against  Persecution  in  Cause  of  Con- 
science." 


CHAPTEE  Xy. 

Massachusetts  was  settling  steadily  on  her  well-laid 
foundations.  The  great  decline  in  the  value  of  prop- 
erty, incident  to  the  discontinuance  of  immigration,  bore 
heavily  upon  her  people  ;  but  the  habit  of  hard  work 
and  careful  saving,  which  necessity  had  enforced  in  the 
earlier  stages  of  the  settlement,  enabled  them  to  live 
above  want,  while  it  sowed  the  seeds  of  a  future  af- 
fluence. And  the  lull,  which  succeeded  to  the  storm 
of  controversy  lately  so  furious,  was  favorable  to  the 
dispassionate  determination  of  the  important  practical 
questions  which  were  constantly  arising  in  the  infancy 
of  the  state.  It  may  even  be  thought,  that  the  arrest 
of  the  increase  of  the  colony  by  accessions  from  abroad 
was  at  this  stage  happily  ordained  to  facilitate  an  orderly 
arrangement  of  its  elements,  already  sufficient  as  they 
w^re,  both  in  amount  and  variety,  for  the  composition  of 
a  vigorous  body  politic. 

In  Dudley's  second  administration  of  the  chief  magis- 
tracy,^ the  scarcity  of  money  was  such  as  to  lead  to  a 
Relief  law  1^"^^  authoriziug  the  satisfaction  of  debts  by  pay- 
in  Massa-      ^icut  "  iu  com,  cattle,  fish,   or  other  commodi- 

chusetts.  '  ' 

J640,  ties,  at  such  rates  as  the  Court  should  set  down 
Oct.  7.  fi-oni  time  to  time,  or,  in  default  thereof,  by 
appraisement  of  indiff"erent  men."  The  law  was  not  to 
have  effect  as  to  debts  existing  at  the  time  of  its  pas- 
sage, or  contracted  within  the  next  three  weekf^.~  But, 
so  restricted,  it  was  not  thought  to  afford  sufficient  re- 
lief ;    and,   by   a  further  provision,   creditors   were   com- 

1  See  above,  p.  554.  -  IVIass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  304. 


Chap.  XV.]  MASSACPIUSETTS.  611 

pelled  to  accept  payment  of  all  dues  in  personal  prop- 
erty of  the  debtors,  such  as  they  should  themselves  select ; 
and,  if  this  should  prove  insufficient,  then  in  real  estate, 
at  a  valuation  to  be  determined  "  by  three  understand- 
ing and  indifferent  men."  ^ 

At  the  expiration  of  Dudley's  year  of  office,  Richard 
Bellingham  was  chosen  his  successor,"  with  Endicott  for 
Deputy-Governor,   and  a  Board  of  Assistants    composed 
of  the  other  Magistrates  of  the  last  year.^     The 
election   of  Bellingham,   which   was  made   by   a  mem  of 
majority  of  only  six  votes  when  there  were  some 
fourteen  hundred  voters,  took  the  General  Court  by  sur- 
prise, and  was  received  by  them  with  a  displeasure  which 
they  testified  significantly  and  without  delay.      The  gov- 
ernment was  no  sooner  sworn  in,  than  they  passed  a  vote 
to  repeal  "  the  order  formerly  made  for  allowing  a  hun- 
dred pound  per  annum  to  the  Governor."  '*     This  period 
of  Bellingham's   life  was    not   the   most  creditable.     He 
occasioned   scandal    by    an    unsuitable    matrimonial    con- 
tract,   by   neglecting   to   have  it   published   according   to 
law,  and  by  performing  the  marriage  ceremony  himself; 
and,  when  called  to  account  before  the  Board  of  Magis- 
trates, he  indulged  himself  in  disrespectful  and  disorderly 
behavior.^     The  General  Court  "  was  full  of  un-  unsatisfac- 
comfortable  agitations  and  contentions,"   by  rea-  !l',n„bnof' 
son  of  his  unfriendliness  to  "  some  other  of  the  ^'^"'"8''«'"- 
Magistrates."      "  He    set-  himself   in    an    opposite    frame 
to   them  in  all  proceedings,  which  did   much   retard   all 
business,  and  was  occasion  of  grief  to  many  godly  minds, 

1  Mass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  307.  A  law  of  election,  Winthrop  wrote,  in  the  mar- 
tbe  next  year  ordered  wampumpeag  to  gin  of  his  manuscript,  "JMr.  B.  chosen 
"  pass  current  at  six  a  penny  for  any  unduly."  "  There  had  been  much 
sum  under  ten  pounds,"  in  payment  of  laboring,"  he  says,  "  to  have  Mr.  Bel- 
debts  subsequently  contracted.  (Ibid.,  lingham  chosen";  and  some  persons, 
329.)  he   thought,    were   improperly   denied 

2  See  above,  pp.  307,  note,  428.  the  privilege  of  voting,  because  of  al- 

3  Mass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  319.  leged  informality. 

4  Ibid. — In  recording  Bellingham's  5  Winthrop,  II.  43. 


612  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

and  matter  of  reproach  to  the  wliole  Court  in  the  mouths 
of  others,  and  brought  himself  low  in  the  eyes  of  those 
with  whom  formerly  he  had  been  in  honor."  The  can- 
did Winthrop,  who  gives  some  instances  of  Belling- 
ham's  maladministration,  found  himself  compelled  to  im- 
pute it  to  "  an  evil  spirit  of  emulation  and  jealousy, 
through  his  melancholic  disposition."  ^  Dudley's  disgust 
was  such,  that  he  could  scarcely  be  prevailed  upon  not 
to  withdraw  from  office.  "  Being  a  very  wise  and  just 
man,  and  one  that  would  not  be  trodden  under  foot  of 
any  man,"  he  "  took  occasion  (alleging  his  age,  &c.) 
to  tell  the  Court  that  he  was  resolved  to  leave  his  place. 

The  Court  was  much  affected,  and  entreated  him, 

with  manifestation  of  much  affection  and  respect  towards 

him,   to  leave   off  these  thouglits The  Governor 

also  made  a  speech,  as  if  he  desired  to  leave  his  place 
of  magistracy  also ;  but  he  was  fain  to  make  his  own 
answer,  for  no  man  desired  him  to  keep  or  to  con- 
sider better  of  it."^  Before  his  official  year  was  out, 
he  had  so  incurred  the  disapprobation  of  the  Deputies, 
with  which  branch  of  the  government  he  was  commonly 
a  favorite,  that  they  proceeded  to  the  extreme  step  of 
sending  a  committee  "  to  give  him  a  solemn  admonition, 
which  was  never  done  to  any  Governor  before."  ^  Per- 
haps it  was  with  a  view  to  provide  some  check  to  what 
was  apprehended  from  his  overbearing  disposition,  that 
an  able  man,  John  Humphrey,  was  advanced  to 

June  2.  '  •  ^ 

the  new  trust   of  "  Sergcant-Major-General "   of 
all  the  military  force  of  the  colony.^ 

Whenever  the  ship  of  state  was  laboring,  the  natural 
resource  was  to  call  Winthrop  to  the  helm ;  and  he  was 

1  Winthrop,  II.  50.  and  gratify  Humphrey,  who  had  just 

2  Ibid.,  54,  55.  now   returned    disappointed   from   the 

3  Ibid.,  52.  West  Indies  (see  above,  p.  550,  note), 

4  Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  I.  329.  —  A  mo-  and  had  met  with  grievous  domestic  mis- 
tive   to   this   step,    independent  of  its  fortunes. 

public  objects,  may  have  been  to  soothe 


Chap.  XV.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  613 

again  made  Governor  at  the  end  of  Bellingliam's  year  of 
office.      Endicott   was   continued    in   the    second  Re-eiection 
place/    and  probably  the  Board   of  Magistrates  ^^l;,";,""''"" 
consisted  of  the    same    members   as  in   the    last  'ni642and 
year,"  except  that  Thomas  Flint  of  Concord^  was 
substituted  for  Mr.  Humphrey,  who  had  taken  his  final 
departure  for  England,**  and  that  the  place  usually  filled 
by  John  Winthrop,   the  younger,   was  vacant.^      In   the 
following   year,    the    same    persons    were  invested   again 
with  the  same  trusts,  and  the  Board  of  Assistants  was  en- 
larged by  the  accession  of  John  Winthrop,  Jr.,  William 
Pynchon,  Samuel  Symonds,  and  William  Hibbens.     Hib- 
bens  had  eight  months   before   returned   from   his   mis- 
sion  to   England.^      Symonds,    "  a   gentleman  of  an  an- 
cient and  worshipful  family,  from  Yeldham,  in  Essex,"  ^ 
was  now  an  inhabitant  of  Ipswich.^     Pynchon's  planta- 
tion  at   Springfield  had  lately  been  brought  under  the 
government   of   Massachusetts.^      The    sermon   preached 

1  Wintlirop,  IT.  63.  — The  first  vol-  Winthrop,)  with  the  language  of  Gov- 
ume  of  the  Records  of  the  Colony  of  ernor  Winthrop  (II.  47)  :"  There  were 
Massachusetts  closes  with  the  proceed-  now  in  all  nine  Magistrates."  Possibly, 
ings  of  December  10,  1641.  The  first  however,  by  "Magistrates"  in  this 
pages  of  the  second  volume,  embracing  place  Winthrop  meant  Assistants,  and 
that  portion  in  which  were  recorded  then  Pynchon  and  young  Winthrop 
the  elections  of  1642,  are  lost.  would  make  up  the  number.   But  I  sup- 

2  I  gather  this  from  the  list  of  Assist-  pose  the  latter  had  not  returned  from 
ants  present  at  the  Court  of  Septem-  Europe  before  the  election.  See  above,^ 
ber  8,  1642.    (Mass.  Coll.  Rec.,  II.  22.)  p.  582,  note  4  ;  Winthrop,  II.  76,  212. 

3  AVinthrop,  II.  47.  Thomas  Flint  6  Winthrop,  II.  76.  See  above,  p.  582. 
had  been  made  a  freeman  in  1637.  Hibbens  was  in  the  colony  as  early  as  the 
(Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  I.  374.)  He  brought  springof  1639.  (Winthrop,  I  320.)  He 
to  New  England  a  property  amounting  was  admitted  a  freeman  in  IMay  of  the 
to  £  2,000,  and  died,  at  the  end  of  six-  next  year  (Mass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  377),  and 
teen  years,  after  a  "  great  decay  of  his  in  the  following  autumn  was  a  Deputy 
estate."     (Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  XXI.  48.)  in  the  General  Court  (Ibid.,  301). 

4  Winthrop,  II.  85,  86.      Humphrey         '  Hubbard,  372. 

had  gone  away  broken-hearted  by  rea-  8  He   was    admitted    a   freeman    in 

son  of  family  troubles.     (Ibid.,  45,  46.)  March,  1638  (Mass.  Col.  Rec.,  I.  374), 

5  I  infer  this  from  a  comparison  and  took  his  place  as  a  Deputy  in  the 
of  the  list  referred  to  above,  in  note  2,  General  Court  two  months  afterward 
(which  contains  the  names  of  nineMagis-  (Ibid.,  227). 

trates,  and  omits  that  of  the  younger        9  See  above,  p.  604. 
VOL.  I.  62 


614  HISTORY   OF  NEW   ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

to  the  General  Court  before  this  election  had  proved  as 
little  persuasive  as  that  in.  which  Cotton,  on  the  same 
occasion,  nine  years  before,  had  enforced  an  opposite 
doctrine.^  "  Mr.  Ezekiel  Rogers,  pastor  of  the  church  in 
Rowley, described  how  the  man  ought  to  be  quali- 
fied whom  they  should  choose  for  their  Governor ;  yet 
dissuaded  them  earnestly  from  choosing  the  same  man 
twice  together." - 

At  this  time,  "  there  arose  a  scruple  about  the  oath 

which  the  Governor  and  the  rest  of  the  Magistrates  were 

to  take,  viz.  about  the  first  part  of  it,  '  You  shall 

Disuso  of  the  ■*■  ^ 

oathofaiie-  bcar  true  faith  and  allegiance  to  our  sovereign 
lord.  King  Charles,'  seeing  he  had  violated  the 
privileges  of  Parliament,  and  made  war  upon  them,  and 
thereby  had  lost  much  of  his  kingdom  and  many  of  his 
subjects ;  whereupon  it  was  thought  fit  to  omit  that  part 
of  it  for  the  present."^  And  here  was  an  end,  for  many 
years,  to  all  public  recognition  of  royal  authority  in 
Massachusetts. 

The  question  which  had  been  entertained  respecting 
the  Council  for  Life  might  seem,  as  to  its  practical  bear- 
Renewai  of  higs,  to  havc  bccu  disposcd  of  by  the  recent  vote."* 
the  question   j^^f.  jj.  ^ygg  ^q  havo  auothcr  momentary  revival.   At 

auoiit  a  •' 

Council  for  tlic  time  when  Winthrop  succeeded  Bellingham, 
]C42.  "  a  book  was  brought  into  the  Court,  wherein  the 
^^''^'  institution  of  the  Standing  Council  was  pretended 
to  be  a  sinful  innovation,"  It  was  a  time  of  jealousy 
and  irritation.  Bellingham's  party,  w^hich  had  scarcely 
prevailed  the  year  before,  was  now  defeated.  He  was  a 
man  wlio  could  not  contentedly  fill  an  inferior  place.  He 
Avas  tliought  to  be  disgusted  at  "  finding  that  some  other 
of  the  Magistrates  bare  more  sway  with  the  people  than 
himself,  and  that  they  were  called  to  be  of  the  Standing 
Council  for  Life,  and  himself  passed  by."  ^     Richard  Sal- 

^  Scfi  above,  p.  373.  ■*  See  above,  p.  555. 

2  "NVintlirop,  II.  90.  5  Winthrop,  II.  50. 

3  Ibid,  I.  101. 


Chap.  XV.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  615 

tonstall  was  his  close  friend  and  devoted  adherent,  and,  in 
the  disputes  of  the  time,  they  together  sided  with  the  pop- 
ular party  against  their  brother  Magistrates. 

Now  that  the  Council  for  Life  had  been  disarmed  by 
the  order  which  deprived  its  members  of  all  power  except 
as  they  were  also  members  of  the  government  annually 
chosen,  the  interest  felt  in  an  argument  against  it  must 
have  been  mainly  due  to  the  sensibility  occasioned  by  the 
existing  state  of  parties,  and  to  animadversions,  express  or 
implied,  on  the  eminent  men  who  had  accepted  the  ob- 
noxious trust.  But  things  so  stood,  that,  on  its  being 
"  brought  into  the  Court,"  "  the  Governor  moved  to  have 
the  contents  of  the  book  examined,  and  then,  if  there 
appeared  cause,  to  inquire  after  the  author."  The  motion 
was  opposed  and  defeated,  "  the  greatest  part  of  the  Court 
having  some  intimation  of  the  author,  of  whose  honest 
intentions  they  were  well  persuaded."  The  majority, 
however,  allowed  a  reading  of  the  treatise,  and  an  inquiry 
"  how  it  came  into  the  Court."  It  proved  to  have  been 
written  by  Mr.  Saltonstall;  to  have  been  communicated 
by  him  to  a  friend  of  his,  Mr.  Hathorne,  a  prominent 
Deputy ;  and  to  have  been  subsequently  in  the  hands  of 
Mr.  Dudley,  who  had  composed  an  answer  to  it. 

The  Governor  now  moved  that  the  character  of  its  con- 
tents should  be  taken  into  consideration  ;  "  but  the  Court 
could  not  agree  to  it,  except  Mr.  Saltonstall  were  first 
acquit  from  any  censure."  "  Upon  that,  some  passages 
very  offensive  and  unwarrantable  were  mentioned,  about 
which  also  the  Court  being  divided,  the  Governor  moved 
to  take  the  advice  of  the  elders  concerning  the  soundness 
of  the  propositions  and  arguments.  This  the  Court  would 
not  allow  neither,  except  the  whole  cause  were  referred." 
At  last,  "  when  no  further  proceeding  was  otherwise  like 
to  be  had,  it  was  agreed  that  —  in  regard  the  Court  was 
not  jealous  of  any  evil  intention  in  Mr.  Saltonstall,"  and 
considered  that  in  offering  his  advice  to  a  Deputy  he  had 


616  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAOT).  [Book  I. 

only  used  a  freeman's  right  —  he  should  be-  "discharged 
from  any  censure  or  further  inquiry  about  the  same."  ^ 

On  the  next  consideration  of  the  vexatious  treatise,  a 

disposition  Avas  evinced  to  heal  the  wounds  which  it  had 

made.     "  It  was  voted  by  the  Court  to  vindicate 

June  14. 

the  office  of  the  Standing  Council, and  the 

persons  in  whom  it  was  vested,  from  all  dishonor  and  re- 
proach cast  upon  it  or  them  in  Mr.  Saltonstall's  book  " ; 
and  "  it  was  ordered,  that  the  book  now  in  Court,  con- 
taining arguments  against  the  Standing  Council,  should 
be  commended  to  the  elders,  who  were  desired  to  return 
their  judgment  and  advice  about  the  matter  thereof  to  the 
next  Court."  ^  Here  was  the  end  of  the  public  proceed- 
ings on  the  subject.^     The  elders  "  took  into  con- 

Oct.  18.  ^  .  ,        ,         1  1   •    1  -1 

sideration  the  book  which  was  committed  to  them 
by  the  General  Court,"  but  "  were  much  different  in  their 
judgment  about  it."  The  statement  of  the  result,  at  which 
they  arrived  in  a  conference  begun  in  this  state  of  mind, 
was  wordy  and  unimportant,  and,  if  it  was  communicated 
to  the  General  Court,  it  is  not  known  to  have  at  all  en- 
gaged the  attention  of  that  body."* 

The  second  year  of  Winthrop's  third  service  in  the 
chief  magistracy  was  signalized  by  the  perfecting  of  the 
system   of  internal   administration   in   two  respects,   and 

1  Winthrop,  11.  04,  65 ;  comp.  Mass.  special  commission.  The  difficulty 
Col.  Rec,  II.  5.  —  The  reader  of  "Win-  -which  the  chief  men  found  in  disposing 
throp  finds  some  explanation  of  the  re-  of  this  must  alone  have  satisfied  them 
sentment  occasioned  by  this  tract,  when  of  the  futility  and  danger  of  any  fur- 
he  is  told  of  its  having  alleged  "  that  the  ther  attempt  to  revive  the  offensive 
Council  was  instituted  unwarily,  to  sat-  institution  of  the  Standing  Council. 
isfy  Mr.  Vane's  desire."  "  Other  pas-  "*  An  abstract  of  it  is  preserved  by 
sages  there  were  also,  which  were  very  "Winthrop  (II.  89,  90).  —  They  oper- 
unsound,  reproachful,  and  dangerous,"  ated  to  more  purpose,  however,  in  an- 
in  Winthrop's  judgment.  other  way.    "  By  the  wisdom  and  faith- 

2  Mass.  Col.  Rec,  II.  20,  21.  fulness  of  the  elders,  Mr.    Saltonstall 

3  A  counter-claim  was  before  long  was  brought  to  see  his  failings  in  that 
set  up  by  the  Deputies  (Winthrop,  II.  treatise,  which  he  did  ingenuously  ac- 
167-169)  to  supersede  the  authority  knowledge  and  bewail,  and  so  he  was 
of  the  Board  of  IMagistrates  in  certain  reconciled  with  the  rest  of  the  Magis- 
vital  particulars,  and  transfer  it  to  a  trates."    (Ibid.,  116.) 


Chap.  XV.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  617 

by  the  maturing  of  a  measure  which  materially  changed, 
and  fixed  for  a  long  period,  the  relations  of  the  colonies 
of  New  England  to  one  another,  and  to  the  world  abroad. 
One  of  the  improvements  now  made  was   a  distribu- 
tion of  the  towns   of  Massachusetts,   thirty  in  number, 
into    four   counties,    which    took    their    names, 
Suffolk,    Norfolk,   Essex,    and    Middlesex,    from  Massacim- 
the    English    shires    from    which    probably   the  countL! 
greater   number  of  immigrants   had  come.^      A      leia. 
framework  for   this  organization    already   exist-      "^ 
ed  in  the  institution   of  Quarterly  Courts   held  at   four 
principal    places,^   and  in  the  organization   of  the   mili- 
tary   force    into    regiments    according    to    a  local    divis- 
ion.^      The   armed  levy  of   each   county   was   presently 
after  placed  under  the  command  of  a  "  Lieuten- 

•^  .  ,  Sept.  7. 

ant,"  an  officer  corresponding  to  the  Lord-Lieu- 
tenant of  an  English  shire,  and  inferior  only  to  the  Gov- 
ernor and  the  Sergeant-Major-General  of  the  colony.     In 
each  county  there  was  to  be  a  sergeant-major,  second  in 
command  to  the  Lieutenant."^ 

The  same  year  witnessed  the  adoption  of  that  great 
security  of  constitutional  governments,  which,  late  in  the 
following  century,  was  to  be  maintained  by  John  Adams  ^ 
against  the  argument  of  Turgot  and  the  judgment  of 
Eranklin,*^  and  which  now  makes  a  part  of  the  organic  law 
of  each  one  of  the  United  States  of  America,  as  well  as 
of  the  federal  government  that  unites  them.     A  division 


1  Mass.    Col.   Rec,    II.     38.      The  of     Salisbury,     Hampton,     Haverhill, 

counties   -were  constituted   as   follows:  Exeter,  Dover,  and  Strawberry  Bank. 

Suffolk,  of  Boston,  Roxbury,  Dorohes-  2  gee  above,  p.  431. 

ter,    Dedham,    Braintree,    Weymouth,  3  gee  above,  p.  443. 

Hingham,   and    Nantasket ;    Essex,   of  4  ]\l£iss.  Col.  Rec.,  II.  42. 

Salem,   Lynn,    Enon    (Wenham),    Ip-  ^  gee  Adams's  Defence  of  the  Con- 

swich,  Rowley,   Newbury,   Gloucester,  stitutions  of  Government  of  the  United 

Cochickawick    (Andover)  ;    Middlesex,  States  of  America,  and  Works  of  John 

of    Charlestown,    Cambridge,    Water-  Adams,  Vols.  IV.,  V.,  and  YL,  ;)n.W2/n. 

town,     Sudbury,    Concord,     TVoburn,  6  gee   "  Queries  and   Remarks,"   in 

Bedford,  and  Reading;   and    Norfolk,  Sparks's  edition  of  Franklin,  V.  165. 

52* 


618  HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

of  the  legislature  into  two  co-ordinate  branches  termi- 
Divisionof  nated  a  controversy  between  the  Magistrates  and 
uvVdepIrt-  Deputies  which  had  been  running  on  for  sev- 
'"""'•  eral  years. ^ 

"  There  fell  out  a  great  business,"   writes  Winthrop, 

"  upon   a   very   small    occasion,"    which    he   proceeds    to 

relate.     "  There    was    a    stray    sow    in    Boston, 

1636.  .  , 

which  was  brought  to  Captain  Keayne,"  a  man 
of  property  and  consequence,  but  unpopular  for  alleged 
hardness  in  his  dealings.  He  gave  public  notice  of  it 
by  the  town-crier  and  otherwise ;  but  no  claimant  ap- 
peared "  for  near  a  year,"  nor  till  after  he  had  killed 
a  pig  of  his  own,  which  had  been  kept  along  with  the 
stray.  Then  a  woman  named  Sherman  came  to  see  it, 
and,  not  being  able  to  identify  it  with  one  which  she  had 
lost,  alleged  that  the  slaughtered  pig  was  hers.  The 
matter  was  examined  into  by  the  elders  of  the  church 
of  Boston,  who,  after  hearing  the  parties  and  their  wit- 
nesses, exonerated  Captain  Keayne.  Mrs.  Sherman  was 
dissatisfied,  and  brought  her  case  to  trial  before  a  jury, 
who  took  the  same  view  of  it,  and  gave  the  defendant 
"  three  pounds  for  his  cost."  Thus  fortified,  Keayne 
turned  on  the  other  party  with  a  suit  for  defamation 
in  charging  him  with  theft,  and  recovered  forty  pounds' 
damages.  Mrs.  Sherman  was  not  satisfied  yet,  and  ap- 
pealed to  the  General  Court.  Of  that  body,  in  which 
1642.  ^s  yet  Magistrates  and  Deputies  sat  and  voted 
June,  -j-^  the 'Same  chamber,  the  prejudices  against 
Keayne  had  weight  with  the  popular  portion ;  and,  after 
a  re-hearing  of  the  case,  which  occupied  "  the  best  part 
of  seven  days,"  two  Magistrates  and  fifteen  Deputies  voted 
for  a  reversal  of  the  previous  decision,  against  the  judg- 
ment of  seven  Magistrates  and  eight  Deputies,  who  ap- 
proved it,  while  "  the  other  seven  Deputies  stood  doubt- 
ful."    Thus  a  large  majority  of  the  superior  officials  was 

1  See  above,  p.  448. 


Chap.  XV.]  MASSACHUSETTS.  619 

for  one  party,  while  on  a  joint  vote  the  majority  of  the 
Court  would  be  for  the  other.  The  division  standing 
thus,  the  case  "  was  not  determined " ;  but,  in  circum- 
stances which  enlisted  a  popular  feeling,  it  had  brought 
up  distinctly  the  fundamental  question  of  the  relation  of 
the  two  classes  of  representatives  to  each  other. 

"  Much  contention  and  earnestness  there  was."  The 
losing  party  was  pertinacious,  and  labored  to  create  an 
impression  that  injustice  had  been  done  out  of  respect  to 
wealth  and  social  standing.  The  affair  "  gave  occasion 
to  many  to  speak  unreverently  of  the  Court,  especially 
of  the  Magistrates ;  and  the  report  went,  that  their  nega- 
tive voice  had  hindered  the  course  of  justice,  and  that 
these  Magistrates  must  be  put  out,  that  the  power  of 
the  negative  voice  might  be  taken  away.  Thereupon  it 
was  thought  fit  by  the  Governor  and  other  of  the  Magis- 
trates to  publish  a  declaration  of  the  true  state  of  the 
cause,  that  truth  might  not  be  condemned  unknown."^ 

The  elders,  on  "  a  view  of  all  the  evidence  on  both 
parties,"  approved  the  sentence  of  the  Court;  but  the 
bilious  Mr.  Bellingham  took  actively  the  part  of  the 
unsuccessful  suitor,  and  "  would  have  the  Magistrates 
lay  down  their  negative  voice."  The  complainant,  "  too 
much  countenanced  by  some  of  the  Court,  preferred  a 
petition  at  the  Court  of  Elections  for  a  new  ic43. 
hearing,"  and  obtained  the  report  of  a  commit-  ^''^' 
tee  in  favor  of  re-opening  the  question.      To  the  disap- 

^  Winthrop,   11.   69-71.  —  Accord-  Robert  Keayne,  defen.  caboutc  tlie  title 

ingly  "  one  of  the  Magistrates  published  to  a  straye  sowe  supposed  to  be  brought 

a  declaration."   (Ibid ,  72.)    The  paper  from  Deare  Island  about  O^er,   1G3G." 

thus  circulated  —  probably   in  several  It  covers  six  compactly  written  pages, 

copies  —  is  in  the  Library  of  the  Amer-  of  small    size,    and    is   in    AVinthrop's 

ican   Antiquarian   Society  at   Worces-  handwriting,  with  his  signature  at  the 

ter.     It  bears  the  title,  "  A  Breaviate  end.     It   contains   full  minutes  of  the 

of  the  Case  betwene  Richard  Sheare-  evidence  and   arguments,   stated   with 

man    [Mrs.    Sherman's   husband,    who  lawyer-like  precision.     It  is  dated  "at 

had    been  abroad  at  the  beginning  of  Boston,  this    5    [July],    15,    1642,"  — 

the  dispute]  pi.  by  petition,  and  Capt.  Comp.  Mass.  Col.  Rec,  II.  12. 


620  HISTORY   OF  KEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  T. 

proving  Governor  "  two  things  appeared  to  carry  men 
on  in  this  course,  as  it  were  in  captivity.  One  was, 
the  Deputies  stood  only  upon  this,  that  their  towns  were 
not  satisfied  in  the  cause  (which,  hy  the  way,  shows 
plainly  the  democratical  spirit  which  acts  over  Depu- 
ties, &c.).  The  other  was,  the  desire  of  the  name  of 
victory."  A  more  generous,  but  not  more  defensible 
sentiment,  prompted  by  a  consideration  of  the  respective 
circumstances  of  the  defendant  and  the  claimant,  had, 
he  thought,  a  more  extensive  influence.  "  He  being  ac- 
counted a  rich  man,  and  she  a  poor  woman,  this  so 
wrought  with  the  people,  as,  being  blinded  with  un- 
reasonable compassion,  they  could  not  see  or  not  allow 
justice  her  reasonable  course."  ^  To  satisfy  this  feeling, 
Keayne  was  advised  to  return  a  part  of  what  had  been 
adjudged  him;  and  the  question  was  once  more  dismissed. 
The  Governor,  however,  was  informed  that  his  expo- 
sition of  it  had  occasioned  displeasure,  "which  he  being 
willing  to  remove,"  so  as  to  "  begin  his  year  in  a  recon- 
ciled state  with  all,"  he  made  a  speech  upon  the  subject 
"  so  soon  as  he  came  into  the  General  Court."  As  to  "the 
matter,"  he  said  he  was  sustained  by  "  the  concurrence  of 
his  brethren,  both  Magistrates  and  Deputies,"  and  "  had 
examined  it  over  and  again  by  such  light  as  God  had 
afforded  him  from  the  rules  of  religion,  reason,  and  com- 
mon practice,  and  truly  could  find  no  ground  to  retract 
anything  in  that,  and  therefore  he  desired  he  might  enjoy 

his  liberty  therein For  the  manner,  "whatever  he 

might  allege  for  his  justification  before  men,  he  now 
passed  it  over,"  and  "  set  himself  before  another  judgment- 
seat."  He  confessed  he  "  was  too  prodigal  of  his  brethren's 
reputation,"  and  "  did  arrogate  too  much  to  himself,  and 
ascribe  too  little  to  others."  He  "  acknowledged  his  fail- 
ings, and  humbly  entreated  those  who  had  been  displeased 

1  It  is  surprising  that  Winthrop  did  not  (juote  Exodus  xxiii.  3,  as  pertinent 
to  the  case. 


Chap.  XV^]  MASSACHUSETTS.  621 

to  pardon  and  pass  them  by  "  ;  and  he  hoped  he  "  should 
be  more  wise  and  watchful  thereafter." 

So  magnanimous  a  course  could  not  but  dispose  of  the 
personal  complaint ;  but  the  question  which  had  arisen, 
"  about  the  Magistrates'  negative  vote  in  the  General 
Court,"  was  not   to   be   so  easily  determined.      "  One  of 

the   Magistrates   wrote    a    small    treatise, showing 

thereby  how  it  was  fundamental  to  the  government,  which, 
if  it  were  taken  away,  would  be  a  mere  democracy.  He 
showed  also  the  necessity  and  usefulness  of  it  by  many 
arguments  from  Scripture,  reason,  and  common  practice, 
&c.     Yet  this  would  not  satisfy,  but  the  Deputies  and 

common  people  would  have  it  taken  away An 

answer  also  was  written  (by  one  of  the  Magistrates,  as 
was  conceived)  to  the  said  treatise."  The  Deputies 
"  pressed  earnestly "  for  an  immediate  decision ;  "  but 
the  Magistrates  told  them  the  matter  was  of  great  con- 
cernment, even  to  the  very  frame  of  the  government." 
At  length,  it  was  agreed  that  there  should  be  further 
opportunity  for  consideration,  and  "that  the  elders  should 
be  desired  to  give  their  advice  before  the  next  meeting  of 
the  Court.  It  was  the  Magistrates'  only  care  to  gain 
time,  that  so  the  people's  heat  might  be  abated,  for  then 
they  knew  they  would  hear  reason."  ^ 

The  Magistrates'  confidence  in  the  people  was  not  mis- 
placed. The  people  did  hear  reason ;  and,  when  the  next 
action  was  had  upon  the  subject,  the  negative  vote  was 
not  "  taken  away,"  but  duplicated.^  Without  opposition, 
so  far  as  is  known,  the  following  preamble  and  JG44. 
vote  were  passed  by  the  General  Court.  ^^^'"^^  ^• 


1  "Winthrop,  II.  115-119;  comp.  lingham.  A  copy  of  "Wlnthrop's  tract 
Mass.  Col.  Rec,  II.  51.  is    in    the    Hutchinson    collection    of 

2  Winthrop  had,  in  the  mean  time,  manuscripts  in  the  Library  of  the 
written  and  circulated  "  A  Reply  to  Massachusetts  Historical  Society  (pp. 
the  Answer"  mentioned  above,  which  59-66).  It  bears  the  date,  4  [June], 
answer  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  he  4,  1643,  and  is  signed  "Jo.  Win- 
understood  to  be  from  the  pen  of  Bel-  throp.  Gov." 


622  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

"  Forasmuch  as,  after  long  experience,  we  find  divers 
inconveniences  in  the  manner  of  our  proceeding  in  Courts 
by  Magistrates  and  Deputies  sitting  together,  and  account- 
ing it  wisdom  to  follow  the  laudable  practice  of  other 
states  who  have  laid  groundworks  for  government  and 
order  in  the  issuing  of  business  of  greatest  and  highest 
consequence,  — 

"  It  is  therefore  ordered,  first,  that  the  Magistrates  may 
sit  and  act  business  by  themselves,  by  drawing  up  bills  and 
orders  which  they  shall  see  good  in  their  wisdom,  which 
having  agreed  upon,  they  may  present  them  to  the  Depu- 
ties to  be  considered  of,  how  good  and  wholesome  such 
orders  are  for  the  country,  and  accordingly  to  give  their 
assent  or  dissent ;  the  Deputies  in  like  manner  sitting 
apart  by  themselves,  and  consulting  about  such  orders 
and  laws  as  they  in  their  discretion  and  experience  shall 
find  meet  for  common  good,  which,  agreed  upon  by  them, 
they  may  present  to  the  Magistrates,  who,  according  to 
their  wisdom  having  seriously  considered  of  them,  may 
consent  unto  them  or  disallow  them  ;  and,  when  any  or- 
ders have  passed  the  approbation  of  both  Magistrates  and 
Deputies,  then  such  orders  to  be  engrossed,  and  in  the 
last  day  of  the  Court  to  be  read  deliberately,  and  full 
assent  to  be  given;  provided,  also,  that  all  matters  of 
judicature,  which  this  Court  shall  take  cognizance  of,  shall 
be  issued  in  like  manner."  ^ 

"This  Order,"  not  by  hurtfully  withdrawing  a  power 

I  IMass.  Col.  llec,  II.  58,  59 ;  comp.  momvealtli  as  authentic,  and  to  be 
"Winthrop,  II.  IGO.  —  The  original  draft  obeyed  by  all  the  country."  After  the 
of  this  important  Order  is  in  the  ar-  word  "  manner,"  at  the  end,  the  fol- 
chlves  of  the  Commonwealth.  In  this  lowing  words  are  added,  in  Winthrop's 
draft,  as  it  was  first  made,  between  the  handwriting,  viz.  "Nor  shall  this  or- 
words  "  given  "  and  "  provided,"  in  the  der  hinder  but  that  both  Magistrates 
last  line  but  two  of  the  Order  as  printed  and  Deputies  may  sometimes  meet  to- 
above,  stood  the  following  words,  viz.  gethor  to  consult  upon  any  special  case 
"  without  alteration  by  the  major  vote  or  affair,  when  either  party  shall  desire 
of  both,  of  Magistrates  and  Deputies  to-  it."  Both  these  clauses  are  crossed 
gether,  which  vote  shall  issue  and  con-  out  with  a  pen. 
firm  all  laws  and  orders  of  this  Com- 


Chap.  XV.]  THE    CONFEDERACY..  623 

from  the  Magistrates,  as  had  been  attempted,  but  by  bene- 
ficially conferring  an  equal  power  upon  the  Deputies, 
"  determined  the  great  contention  about  the  negative 
voice,"  '  and  completed  the  frame  of  the  internal  govern- 
ment of  Massachusetts,  destined  to  undergo  no  further 
organic  change  for  forty  years. 

A  measure  of  still  greater  moment  had  been  consum- 
mated some  months  earlier.      This  was  no  less      ,  ^     . 

Confederation 

than  a  political  confederation  of  the  four  princi- offourcoio- 
pal  Colonies  of  Xew  England. 

This  measure,  the  scheme  of  which  had  perhaps  been 
derived  from  the  Confederacy  of  the  Low  Countries,  had 
been  conceived  several  years  before.  Such  of  the  rea- 
sons finally  availing  for  its  adoption,  as  seemed  fit  to  be 
committed  to  a  formal  record,  are  set  forth  in  the  pre- 
amble to  the  Articles  - :  — 

"  Whereas  we  all  came  into  these  parts  of  America 
with  one  and  the  same  end  and  aim,  namely,  to  advance 
the  kingdom  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  to  enjoy  the 
liberties  of  the  Gospel  in  purity  with  peace ;  —  and  where- 
as in  our  settling  (by  a  wdse  providence  of  God)  we  are 
further  dispersed  upon  the  sea-coasts  and  rivers  than  was 
at  first  intended,  so  that  we  cannot,  according  to  our  de- 
sire, with  convenience  communicate  in  one  government 
and  jurisdiction ;  — and  whereas  w^e  live  encompassed  with 
people  of  several  nations  and  strange  languages,  which 
hereafter  may  prove  injurious  to  us,  or  our  posterity ;  — 
and  forasmuch  as  the  natives  have  formerly  committed 
sundry  insolences  and  outrages  upon  several  plantations 
of  the  English,  and  have  of  late  combined  themselves 
against  us  ;  —  and  seeing  by  reason  of  those  sad  distrac- 
tions in  England  which  they  have  heard  of,  and  by  which 
they  know  we  are  hindered  from  that  humble  way  of 
seeking  advice,  or  reaping  those  comfortable  fruits  of  pro- 
tection, which  at  other  times  we  might  well  expect:  — We 

1  Winthrop,  II.  ICO.  2  The  instrument  is  in  Hazard,  II.  1-6. 


624  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

therefore  do  conceive  it  our  bounden  duty  without  delay- 
to  enter  into  a  present  consociation  amongst  ourselves, 
for  mutual  help  and  strength  in  all  our  future  concern- 
ments ;  that,  as  in  nation  and  religion,  so  in  other  re- 
spects, we  be  and  continue  one." 

Of  the  five  specifications  here  made,  it  was  the  third 
particularly  that  expressed  the  original  occasion  of  the 
movement.  The  "  people  of  several  nations  and  strange 
languages "  were  the  French  upon  the  eastern  frontier  of 
the  English  colonists,  the  Dutch  upon  the  western,  and 
the  Swedes  on  Delaware  Bay.  Six  years  after  the  fall  of 
Gustavus  Adolphus  on  the  field  of  Liitzen,  a  small  com- 
pany of  this  nation,  following  up  a  plan  of  colonization 
in  America  which  had  been  favored  by  that  hero,  plant- 
ed what  proved  to  be  the  crerm  of  the   present 

1638.  '^  . 

State  of  Delaware.  They  were  too  distant  and 
too  few  to  be  formidable  to  New  England.  The  French 
did  not  seem  likely  for  the  present  to  attempt  the  use 
of  any  force,  beyond  what  Massachusetts,  which  alone 
was  exposed  to  it,  was  amply  competent  to  cope  with. 
But  Connecticut  and  New  Haven,  from  the  first,  had 
sufiered  annoyance  from  the  Dutch  settlement  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Hudson. 

When    Minuit^    was    superseded    as    Director-General 

of  the  colony  of  New  Netherland,  it  did  not  continue  to 

thrive  as  before.     But  under  the  administration 

1C33. 

of  his  successor,  Walter  Van  Twiller,  a  trading- 
house  was  erected  on  the  Delaware,  or  South  River,  five 
years  before   the  arrival  of  the   Swedes;   while  another, 


1  See  above,  p.  237.  —  !Minuit,  on  his  representation  to  Sir  John  Coke,  Secre- 

ivay   back   to    Holland,   in   1G32,  was  tary  of  State.      TJie  Dutch  ambassador 

driven  by  stress  of  weather   into  the  remonstrated,    and    a    correspondence 

Englir^h  port  of  riymouth.     Here  Cap-  took  place,   in  whicli  the  English  gov- 

tain    ]\Iason   had    his  ship   libelled,  for  ernment    peremptorily    maintained    its 

carrying   on    an    unlawful    trade    in  a  right  to   the  territory   about  Hudson's 

country  belonging  to  the  king  of  Eng-  Kiver,  though,  as  an  act  of  favor,  j\Iinu- 

land,  and  followed  up  that  step  by  a  it's  vessel  was  released. 


Chap.  XV.]  THE   CONFEDERACY.  625 

established  by  him  on  the  Connecticut,  gave  occasion  to 
the  disputes  which  have  been  mentioned,  with  the  Ply- 
mouth people  in  the  first  instance,  and  afterwards  with 
the  planters  from  Massachusetts.^ 

Van  Twiller,  after  an  administration  of  four  years,  was 
succeeded  by  William  Kieft,  a  man  of  resolution 

.    .  1637. 

and  ability,  though  not  worthy  of  esteem.    AVhen 
New  Haven  came  to  be  planted,  the  settlements  of  Eng- 
lish and  Dutch,  with  fickle  Indians  between  them, 

1638. 

were  drawing  too  close  to  each  other  for  mutual 
satisfaction ;  and  Kieft  protested  against  the  approach  of 
his  new  neighbors,  as  an  intrusion  upon  his  masters' 
domain.  There  was  a  standing  feud  between  the  few 
Dutchmen  at  Hartford,  and  the  later  comers  by  whom 
they  were  surrounded  ;  and  it  sometimes  led  to  blows,  in 
which  the  Dutch  were  worsted.     Kieft  drove  off 

1642. 

a  party  of  English  who  attempted  to  plant  at  the 
western  end  of  Long  Island.^  He  broke  up  a  factory  which 
the  New  Haven  people  had  established  on  the  Delaware, 
destroying  the  property  and  making  prisoners  of  the  peo- 
ple. Various  other  proceedings  of  his  were  thought  to 
indicate  a  wide  reach  of  unfriendly  designs,  and  a  pur- 
pose to  rouse  the  hostility  of  the  natives.  He  neglected 
complaints  made  against  the  Dutch  for  harboring  fugi- 
tives from  justice  and  runaway  servants;  for  furnishing 
the  Indians  with  arms  and  ammunition  ;  and  for  dealing 
with  them  for  goods  stolen  from  the  English. 

1  Sec  above,  pp.  340,  451.  sent  men  to  take  possession  of  the  place, 

2  This  was  the  party,  from  Lynn  in  and  set  up  the  arms  of  the  Prince  of 
Massachusetts,  which  ultimatel}',  near  Orange  upon  a  tree.  The  Lynn  men 
the  east  end  of  the  island,  founded  sent  ten  or  twelve  men  with  provisions, 
the  town  of  Southampton  (see  above,  &c.,  who  began  to  build,  and  took  down 
p.  C04).  They  had  obtained  a  tract  at  the  Prince's  arms,  &c.,  and,  in  place 
the  west  end,  on  the  north  side,  by  thereof,  an  Indian  had  drawn  an  un- 
purchase  from  the  Indians  and  from  handsome  face.  The  Dutch  took  this 
one  Forrett,  who  pretended  to  author-  in  high  displeasure,  and  sent  soldiers 
ity  to  sell  it  as  agent  for  the  Earl  of  and  fetched  away  their  men,"  &c. 
Stirling,  patentee   of  the   Council   for  (Winthrop,  II.  6.) 

New  England.      "  The  Dutch 

VOL.  I.  53 


626  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

The  original  movement  towards   a   confederation  pro- 
ceeded from  the  western   colonies  ;    and  this  harassing 
state    of  their   relations  with  their   Dutch  neighbors   is 
recorded    as    its    cause.     The    first   proposal    came    from 
Connecticut,  before   the  planting  of  New  Haven.     The 
people  of  that  colony  were  right  in  withdrawing  from 
subjection  to  Massachusetts ;  they  were  equally  right  in 
desiring  the  continued  protection  of  her  alliance.     "  Some 
1G37.      of  the  Magistrates  and  ministers  of  Connecticut 
Aug.  31.    i^gii^g  "  at  Boston,  "  there  was  a  day  of  meeting 
appointed  to  agree  upon  some  articles  of  confederation, 
and  notice  was  given  to  Plymouth  that  they  might  join 
in  it;  but  their  warning  was  so  short  as  they  could  not 
come."-^    When  next  the  scheme  obtained  a  formal  consid- 
eration, it  was  thought  by  Massachusetts  that  the 
apprehensions   of  Connecticut  dictated  such  ex- 
treme reserve  in  relation  to  grants  of  power  to  the  pro- 
posed   confederacy,    as   to  make  its   further   prosecution 
1G39.     undesirable.^      It    was    revived    in    Connecticut 
May.      -^vhcn  the  vigorous  policy  of  Kieft  disclosed  itself. 


1C38. 
June. 


1  Winthrop,  I.  237,  apparent  causes  of  offence  •which  they 

2  "  The  ground  of  all  was,  their  shy-  had  given."  Winthrop  also  wrote  (Au- 
ness  of  coming  under  our  government,"  gust  28,  1638)  a  letter  to  Hooker,  of 
Bays  Winthrop  (Ibid.,  284).  He  adds,  Avhich  he  has  preserved  an  abstract 
however,  that  "  the  differences  between  (Winthrop,  II.  340).  He  conceived  the 
us  and  those  of  Connecticut  were  di-  "  miscarriages  in  point  of  correspond- 
verse."  Massachusetts  at  this  time  (Ibid.,  ence  "  of  the  Connecticut  people  "  to 
285,  comp.  Mass.  Col.  Rec,  I.  321)  re-  arise  from  two  errors  in  their  govern- 
claimed  Springfield,  with  the  privilege  ment";  namely,  their  elections  to  office 
of  passing  from  it  down  the  river  to  the  of  "  men  who  had  no  learning  nor  judg- 
Sound.  Winthrop  wrote  to  Connect-  ment  which  might  fit  them  for  those 
icut  on  this  subject,  and,  "after  a  long  afiairs,  though  otherwise  men  holy  and 
time,  ]\Ir.  Ludlow,  in  the  name  of  their  religious";  and  their  allowing  "the 
Court,  returned  answer,  which  was  main  burden  for  managing  of  state 
very  harsh."     It  was  so  harsh,  the  Mas-  business  "  to  fall  "  upon  some  one  or 

sachusetts  Magistrates   thought,    as   to  other  of  their  ministers, who, 

have  "  tied  their  hands,  in  a  manner,  though  they  were  men  of  singular  wis- 

from  replying";    and    Winthrop   was  dom  and  godliness,  yet,  stepping  out  of 

fain  to  write  "  a  private  letter  to  Jlr.  their  course,  their  actions  wanted  that 

Haynes,   wherein  ho   laid   open   their  blessing,   which  otherwise  might  have 

mistakes,  as  he  called  them,  and  the  been  expected."     (Ibid.,  I.  2SC.) 


Chap.  XV.]  THE  CONFEDERACY.  627 

Haynes  and  Hooker  "  came  into  the  Bay,  and  stayed  near 
a  month,"  to  confer  upon  it ;  ^  and  the  Connecticut  Court 
sent  a  committee  from  Hartford  to  Saybrook  to 

•'  Aug.  8. 

engage  the  good  offices  of  Mr.  Fenwick.^ 

Hitherto,  and  for  a  considerable  time  later,  Massachu- 
setts seems  to  have  been  indifferent  to  the  measure ;  — 
perhaps  from  unwillingness  to  be  invested  with  a  share 
in  the  joint  administration  equal  only  to  that  claimed 
by  sister  communities  less  populous  and  powerful.  At 
length,  her  course  in  respect  to  it  w^as  changed.  A  con- 
currence of  circumstances  at  that  point  of  time  deserves 
notice.  "  The  propositions  sent  from  Connecti-  1642, 
cut  about  a  combination,  &c.  were  read,  and  ^^p*--''- 
referred  to  a  committee  to  consider  of  after  the  Court." 
The  Court,  "  with  advice  of  the  elders,"  had  just  "  ordered 
a  general  fast,"  of  which  the  specified  occasions  were,  — 
"  second,  the  danger  of  the  Indians ;  third,  the  unseasona- 
ble weather  " ;  but  first  and  chiefly,  "  the  ill  news  we  had 
out  of  England  concerning  the  breach  between  the  king 
and  Parliament."  ^  The  war  that  had  begun  in  England 
in  the  previous  month  had  been  impending  through  all 
the  summer.  Puritanism  and  civil  liberty  were  to  try 
their  issue  at  the  sword's  pbint  against  despotism  and 
prelacy.  If  the  right  were  doomed  to  be  stricken  down 
on  the  other  side  of  the  water,  it  would  only  the  more 
need  a  refuge  upon  this ;  and,  as  long  as  the  balance 
was  trembling,  the  encouragement  of  friendship,  though 
neither  powerful  nor  near,  might  add  a  weight  to  deter- 
mine which  way  it  should  incline.  At  all  events,  when 
tyrannical  king  and  patriotic  Parliament  were  in  arms 
against  each  other,  it  was  prudent  for  distant  English- 
men to  be  likewise  in  panoply  to  meet  all  occasions;* 


1  WIntlirop,  I.  299.  4  Mass.    Col.    Rec,   IT.    61;    comp. 

2  Conn.  Col.  Rec,  30,  31.  Winthrop,  II.  160.— Virginia  "was  like 

3  Winthrop,   II.    85 ;    comp.  Mass.     to  rise  in  parties,  some  for  the  king,  and 
Col.  Rec,  II.  16,  31.  others  for  the  Parliament."     (Ibid.) 


628 


HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND. 


[Book  I. 


when  their  numbers  were  lessened  by  the  drawing  off  of 
reinforcements  to  a  remote  field,  it  was  wise  in  those 
who  were  left  to  fortify  themselves  with  the  strength 
of  union ;  and  he  reads  the  avowed  reasons  for  the  New- 
England  confederacy  with  superficial  observation,  who 
does  not  single  out  from  the  rest  "  those  sad  distrac- 
tions in  England"  as  having  had  a  special  efficacy  in 
bringing  about  the  measure. 

At  the  next  General  Court,   commissioners   presented 
ic43_      themselves  at  Boston  from  each  of  the  three  col- 
May  10.     qiiIqs,  Plymouth,  Connecticut,  and  New  Haven.^ 
Mr.   Fenwick  of  Saybrook  was  a  party  to  the  consulta- 
tions.^    The  Governor,  Avith  two  Magistrates   and  three 


1  Plymouth  was  represented  by 
Winslow  and  Collier  (Plym.  Col.  llec,, 
II.  53,  5G)  ;  Connecticut  by  Ilaynes 
and  Hopkins  (Conn.  Col.  Eec,  82, 
91)  ;  and  New  Haven  by  Eaton 
and    Gregson    (N.  H.  Col.    Rec,  87, 

2  Winthrop  says  (II.  99  )  :  "  At  this 

Court  came  the   Commissioners 

from  Connecticut,  Mr.  Haynes  and  Mr. 
Hopkins,  with  whom  Mr.  Fenwick  of 
Saybrook  joined."  I  was  perplexed  by 
the  relation  of  J\Ir.  Fenwick  to  this 
business,  and  applied  to  Mr.  Trumbull, 
of  Hartford,  for  an  explanation.  That 
with  wliich  he  was  so  good  as  to  fur- 
nish me  is  so  lucid,  that  I  should  do  it 
injustice  if  I  gave  it  in  any  other  than 
his  own  words.  Mr.  Trumbull  writes 
as   follows : 

"  jNIr.  Fenwick's  position  was  a  pecu- 
liar one,  —  and  it  would  perhaps  have 
been  very  difficult  for  himself  to  de- 
cide how  far  he  was  to  be  regarded 
as  a  separate  party  ;  yet  I  think  he 
came  to  discuss  the  proposed  Confed- 
eracy as  the  representative  of  his  em- 
ployers, '  the  lords  and  gentlemen ' 
interested  at  Saybrook  under  the  Earl 
of  Warwick's  grant.  These,  however, 
had  already  abandoned  their  purpose 


of  emigration,  and,  with  it,  all  real  in- 
terest in  Connecticut.  In  1C41,  Mr. 
Fenwick  proposed  to  wait  '  one  year 
longer,  in  expectation  of  his  company, 
at  least  some  of  them.'  The  time  had 
long  since  elapsed,  and  there  remained 
only  a  possibility  of  their  coming. 
There  was  now  a  good  understanding 
between  him  and  Connecticut,  and  he 
was  perhaps  already  negotiating  the 
sale  of  the  fort,  &c.,  which  he  con- 
cluded the  next  year. 

"  But,  to  preserve  this  understanding, 
it  was  necessary  to  waive  any  present 
examination  of  titles.  The  Court  could 
hardly  admit  the  validity  of  the  Say- 
brook patent,  without  abandoning  its 
own  claim  to  jurisdiction,  —  as  against 
IMassachusctts  for  instance,  or  the 
Dutch ;  and  there  were  strong  reasons 
for  not  openly  calling  in  question  the 
authority  of  the  patent,  —  -which  they 
were  about  purchasing,  and  looked  to 
as  the  safeguard  of  their  own  author- 
ity. So  Mr.  Fenwick  took  just  so  much 
part  in  the  pioceedings  as  to  enable 
him  to  interpose  a  salvo  jure  for  the 
patentees.  In  proof  of  this,  though 
Haynes  and  Hopkins  were  sent  by  the 
Court  '  to  conclude  a  union '  (IMarch 
27,  1643,  Conn.  Col.  Rec,  I.  82),  the 


Chap.  XV.]  THE   CONFEDERACY.  629 

Deputies,  was  authorized  to  treat  on  the  part  of  Massa- 
chusetts.^    "  These,  coming  to  consultation,  encountered 
some  difficulties  ;   but,  being  all  desirous  of  union  and 
studious  of  peace,  they  readily  yielded  to  each  other  in 
such  things  as  tended  to  common   utility,  &c.,  so  as  in 
some  two   or  three  meetings   they   lovingly  accorded."^ 
Their  deliberations  issued  in  an  agreement  upon  twelve 
articles,  and  created  what,  for  important  purposes,  was  for 
many  years  a  Federal  Government  of  the  New  Eng-   1643, 
land  Colonies.     Receiving  at  once  the  signatures  of  ^'"^  ^^• 
all  the  commissioners  except  those  of  Plymouth,  who  had 
not   brought   authority    to    sign,    they    were   soon 
ratified  by  the  government  of  that  Colony  also. 

The  settlements  of  Gorges,  and  the  plantations  about 
Narragansett  Bay,  were  denied  admission  to  the  Con- 
federacy ;  the  former,  says  Winthrop,  "  because  they  ran 
a  different  course  from  us,  both  in  their  ministry  and 
civil  administration."  ^  Neither  had  yet  been  able  to 
institute  a  government,  such  as  could  be  relied  on  for 
the  fulfilment  of  the  stipulations  mutually  made  by  the 
four  Colonies.  The  Narragansett  settlers  were  at  such 
variance  among  themselves,  that  three  years  passed  after 
they  had  obtained  an  advantageous  charter  from  the  Par- 
liamentary Commissioners,  before  they  could  come  to  a 
sufficiently  good  understanding  to  put  it  in  operation ; 
and  even  that  system  in  their  hands  speedily  came  to  the 


articles  were  signed,  in  May,  by  Hop-  the   assent,    but   not   by  the  appoint- 

kins  and  Fenicick,  and  the  records  of  ment,  of  the  Court." 

the  Commissioners  (Hazard,  II.  7)  refer  i  Winthrop,     II.     99.     Mass.     Col. 

to  an  order  of  the  Connecticut  Court  Rec,  II.  35.      The  persons  delegated 

of  July  5th,  appointing  them  Commis-  to  this  trust,  on  the  part  of  Massachu- 

sioners  for  Connecticut.     But  by  refer-  setts,  were  "  the    Governor,    and  Mr. 

ring  to  the  Court  records  (I.  90)  it  ap-  Dudley  and  Mr.  Bradstreet,  being  of 

pears  that  '  ]\Ir.  Hopkins  is  desired  to  the  Magistrates ;  and  of  the  Deputies, 

perform  the  service  to  be  one  of  the  Captain  Gibbons,  Mr.  Tyng  (the  Treas- 

comraittee  for  this  river,'  &c.,  nothing  urer),  and  Mr.  Hathorn." 

being  said  of  the  other.      Mr.  Fenwick  2  "Winthrop,  II.  99. 

went  as  Mr.  Hopkins's  colleague,  with  3  Ibid.,  101. 
53* 


630  HISTORY   OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

ground,  and  had  to  be  renewed.  The  people  of  Providence 
were  united  by  an  association  the  most  lax  that  can  possi- 
bly assert  a  title  to  the  name ;  those  of  an  outlying  settle- 
ment, which  had  become  detached  from  it,  were  in  the 
most  disorderly  condition ;  and  even  those  of  Rhode  Island 
were  in  such  bad  credit,  not  only  in  Massachusetts,  but 
with  the  quiet  people  of  Plymouth,  who  had  no  quarrel 
with  them,  as   to   cause   the  kind  and  candid  Brewster 

1542.      to  write,  "  Concerning  the  Islanders,  we  have  no 

Mayj7.  couvcrsing  with  them,  nor  desire  to  have,  fur- 
ther than  necessity  or  humanity  may  require."  ^  The 
oath  taken  by  the  freemen  of  Rhode  Island  contained 
an  engagement  of  fealty  to  the  king^;  and  Gorges,  the 
proprietary  of  Maine,  was  in  arms  for  him.  It  was  by 
no  influence  proceeding  from  such  sources,  that  the  ob- 
jects of  the  confederacy  were  to  be  carried  out. 

The  confederation  was  no  less  than  an  act  of  abso- 
lute sovereignty  on  the  part  of  the  contracting  states. 
The  first  two  articles  bound  together  the  four  Colonies 
and  their  dependencies,  under  the  name  of  "  The  United 
Colonies  of  New  England,''  in  "  a  firm  and  perpetual 
league  of  friendship  and  amity  for  offence  and  defence, 
mutual  advice  and  succor,  upon  all  just  occasions,  both 
for  preserving  and  propagating  the  truth  and  liberties  of 
the  Gospel,  and  for  their  own  mutual  safety  and  welfare." 

The  third  provided,  that,  for  purposes  of  internal 
administration,  each  Colony  should  retain  its  inde- 
pendence, and  that  no  new  member  should  be  received 

1  Bradford,  388. — The  feelinfj  against  either  for  themselves  or  the  people  of 

them  in  Massachusetts  was  such,  that  the  the  island  where  they  inhabit,  as  their 

General  Court,  in  October,  1640,  having  case  standeth."     (Mass.  Col.  Kec.,  I. 

considered  a  letter  from  the  authorities  305.) 

of  New  Ebiven,  Connecticut,  and  Rhode  2  Jt  ig   true   that  also  in  Plymouth 

Island,  ordered  "  that  the  answer  should  oaths  of  allegiance  to  the  king  were  in 

be  directed  to  Mr.  Eaton,  Mr.  Hopkins,  use.    (See  above,  p.  646.)     But  no  un- 

and  Mr.   Haynes,  only  excluding  Mr.  friendliness   to    the   Puritan    establish- 

Coddington  and  Mr.  Brenton,  as  men  ments  of  New  England  could  be  ap- 

not  to   be  capitulated    withal    by   us,  preheuded  from  the  people  there. 


Chap.  XV.]  THE   CONFEDERACY.  631 

into  the  league,  nor  any  two  present  members  be  con- 
solidated into  one  jurisdiction,  without  "  consent  of  the 
rest." 

By  the  fourth,  levies  of  men,  money,  and  supplies 
for  war,  were  to  be  assessed  on  the  respective  Colonies, 
in  proportion  to  the  male  population  of  each  between 
the  ages  of  sixteen  and  sixty,  as  ascertained  by  a  census 
to  be  made  from  time  to  time  for  each  Colony  by  its 
Commissioners ;  and  the  spoils  of  war  were  to  be  distrib- 
uted to  the  several  Colonies  on  the  same  principle. 

According  to  the  fifth,  upon  notice,  by  three  Magis- 
trates, of  an  existing  invasion  of  any  Colony,  the  rest 
were  forthwith  to  send  it  relief; — Massachusetts  to  the 
number  of  a  hundred  men,  if  so  many  were  needed,  and 
each  of  the  others  to  the  number  of  forty-five,  "  suffi- 
ciently armed  and  provided  for  such  a  service  and  jourr- 
ney."  The  nearest  confederate  alone  was  to  be  sum- 
moned, if  the  occasion  required  no  more ;  and  then  the 
men  were  "  to  be  victualled,  and  supplied  with  powder 
and  shot  for  their  journey,  (if  there  were  need,)  by  that 
jurisdiction  which  employed  or  sent  for  them."  If 
more  than  the  whole  stipulated,  amount  of  aid  was 
demanded,  then  the  whole  body  of  Commissioners  was 
to  be  convened,  to  order  a  further  enlistment,  should 
they  see  cause;  or,  if  in  their  judgment  the  invaded 
Colony  was  in  fault,  then  to  condemn  it  to  give  satis- 
faction to  the  invader,  and  to  defray  the  charges  in- 
curred. In  the  case  of  "  danger  of  any  invasion  ap- 
proaching," three  Magistrates  (or  if  in  the  threatened 
jurisdiction  there  were  no  more  than  three,  then  two) 
might  summon  a  meeting  of  the  Commissioners. 

By  the  sixth,  a  board  Avas  constituted  for  the  manage- 
ment of  the  business  of  the  Confederacy,  to  consist  of 
two  Commissioners  from  each  Colony,  all  of  them  church- 
members,  with  power  to  "  determine  all  aflfairs  of  war 
or  peace,  leagues,  aids,  charges,  and  numbers  of  men  for 


632  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

war,  division  of  spoils,  and  whatsoever  was  gotten  by  con- 
quest, receiving  of  more  confederates  for  plantations  into 
combination  with  any  of  the  confederates,  and  all  things 
of  like  nature  which  were  the  proper  concomitants  or 
consequents  of  such  a  confederation  for  amity,  oifence, 
and  defence."  The  concurrence  of  six  Commissioners 
was  to  be  conclusive;  in  fault  of  this,  the  matter  was 
to  be  referred  to  the  General  Courts  of  the  several 
Colonies,  and  the  concurrence  of  them  all  was  to  be  bind- 
ing. The  Commissioners  were  to  meet  once  a  year,  on 
the  first  Thursday  of  September,  and  as  much  oftener  as 
occasion  should  require;  the  meetings,  until  some  per- 
manent place  of  meeting  should  be  agreed  upon,  were 
to  be  held  in  succession  at  the  principal  towns  of  the 
Colonies  respectively,  except  that  two  meetings  out  of 
five  were  to  be  at  Boston. 

The  seventh  authorized  the  Commissioners,  or  six  of 
them,  at  each  meeting,  to  choose  a  President  from  their 
own  number,  who  was  to  be  "  invested  with  no  power  or 
respect,"  except  "  to  take  care  and  direct  for  order,  and  a 
comely  carrying  on  of  all  proceedings." 

The  eighth  directed  the  Commissioners  to  "  endeavor 
to  frame  and  establish  agreements  and  orders,  in  general 
cases  of  a  civil  nature  wherein  all  the  plantations  were 
interested,  for  preserving  peace  among  themselves,  and 
preventing,  as  much  as  might  be,  all  occasions  of  war 
or  difi*erence  with  others,"  as  by  the  securing  of  justice 
to  the  citizens  of  other  jurisdictions,  and  a  firm  and 
equitable  course  of  proceeding  towards  the  Indians ;  and 
it  stipulated  the  extradition  of  runaway  servants  and 
fugitives  from  justice. 

By  the  ninth,  the  confederates  mutually  engaged  them- 
selves to  abstain  from  all  war  not  inevitable,  and  from 
all  claim  to  reimbursement  for  military  charges,  except 
with  the  approbation  of  the  Commissioners. 

The  tenth  permitted  a  preliminary  action  by  four  Com- 


Chap.  XV.]  THE   CONFEDERACY.  633 

missioners,  in  cases  of  exigency,  when  a  larger  number 
could  not  be  convened. 

The  eleventh,  in  case  of  any  breach  of  the  terms  of 
the  alliance  by  any  Colony,  invested  the  Commissioners 
of  the  other  Colonies  with  authority  to  determine  the 
offence  and  the  remedy. 

And  the  twelfth  was  a  ratification  of  the  eleven  pre- 
ceding, which  were  to  go  into  effect  either  with  or  with- 
out the  expected  concurrence  of  Plymouth,^  whose  rep- 
resentatives had  brought  "  no  commission  to  conclude." 

Of  this  confederation,  which  "  offers  the  first  example 
of  coalition  in  colonial  story,  and  showed  to  party  lead- 
ers in  after  times  the  advantages  of  concert,"^  it  was 
not  without  apparent  reason  that  an  unfriendly  his- 
torian remarked,  that  its  "  principles  were  altogether 
those  of  independency,  and  it  cannot  easily  be  sup- 
ported by  any  other."  ^  It  had  scarcely  been  formed, 
when   the  English    Parliament,   turnino^   its    at- 

,  .  1-41  •  Parliamen- 

tention  to  the  American  colonies,''  and  assuming  tarycom- 
the    same    authority   over    them    that   had   been  ciToniTi 
pretended  by  the  king,  instituted  a  commission  ^"''j^™^"^ 
for    their    government,    consisting    of   six    lords 


Nov.  2. 


1  Hazard,  II.  1.  was  concluded,  but  referred   to  next 

2  Chalmers,  Revolt  of  the  American  Court,  and,  in  the  mean  time,  that  let- 
Colonies,  87.  "  From  the  era  of  that  ters  should  be  written  to  the  other 
famous  league,  Masssachusetts  acted  Colonies  to  advise  with  them  about  it." 
merely  in  pursuance  of  her  principles,  (Winthrop,  II.  160.)  —  "The  general 
when  she  conducted  herself  wholly  as  covenant  for  matters  of  religion  and 
an  independent  state."     Ibid.,  88.  civil    liberties    was    [March    7,    1644] 

3  Chalmers,  Annals,  178.  —  There  taken  into  consideration,  and  ordered 
would  seem  to  have  been  a  vague  that  letters  should  be  written  to  the 
scheme,  about  the  same  time,  for  a  still  other  United  Colonies  to  advise  with 
further  consolidation.  "  A  proposition  them  about  it."  (Mass.  Col.  Rec,  II. 
was  made  this  Court  [1644,  March]  for  61.) 

all  the  English  within  the  United  Colo-         4  The   government   of  the    English 

nies  to  enter  into  a  civil  agi'eement  for  colonies  was  first  lodged  in  the  Privy 

the   maintenance  of  religion    and   our  Council.     The  machinery  next  devised 

civil   liberties,   and   for   yielding  some  for  the  purpose  was  that  of  the  commis- 

more  of  the  freeman's  privileges  to  such  sion  of  which  Laud  was  the  head.    (See 

as  were  no  church-members  that  should  above,  p.  391.)     The  next  was  the  au- 

join  in  this  government.     But  nothing  thority  now  instituted  by  Parliament. 


634  HISTORY  OF  NEW  ENGLAND.  [Book  I. 

and  twelve  commoners,  with  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  the 
Lord  Admiral,  at  its  head.  The  commissioners  were  au- 
thorized "  to  provide  for,  order,  and  dispose  all  things 
which  they  should  from  time  to  time  find  most  fit  and  ad- 
vantageous to  the  well  governing,  securing,  strengthening, 
and  preserving  of  the  said  plantations,"  and  especially 
to  appoint  and  remove  "  subordinate  governors,  counsel- 
lors, commanders,  officers,  and  agents."^  The  Ordinance 
of  Parliament  was  too  late  for  New  England,  if  indeed  it 
was  intended  for  anything  more  than  to  provide  for  the 
suppression  of  the  king's  party  in  the  other  dependencies 
of  the  empire.  The  New-England  Colonies  had  taken 
their  affairs  into  their  own  hands.  By  the  counsels  of 
brave  men,  and  by  the  progress  of  events,  a  self-governing 
association  of  self-governing  English  commonwealths  had 
been  founded  in  America;  and  the  manifestation  which 
they  had  just  now  made  of  confidence  in  themselves  and 
in  one  another  may  well  have  had  its  place,  along  with 
the  sympathies  which  allied  them  to  those  who  had 
come  into  power  in  the  parent  country,  in  preventing 
interference  from  abroad  with  the  local  administration. 

1  The  Commission  is  in  Hazard  (I.  petitions  could  have  been  sent.  I  think, 
533).  Lord  Say  and  Sele,  Sir  Arthur  not  from  New  England,  unless  it  -were 
Hazelrigg,  Henry  Vane  the  younger,  from  some  of  the  Maine  or  Narragan- 
Sir  Benjamin  Rudyerd,  Pym,  Cromwell,  sett  settlers.  Perhaps  they  went  from 
and  Samuel  Vassall  were  members  of  Clayborne's  discomfited  party  in  Mary- 
thc  Board.  The  ordinance  establishing  land,  or  from  those  Virginians  Avho  Avere 
it  refers  to  petitions  from  some  of  the  disaffected  to  the  government  of  Sir 
plantations,  that  "  they  might  have  William  Berkeley.  (Winthrop,  II. 
some  such  governor  and  governments  159,  160.)  A  law  of  Virginia,  ban- 
as  should  be  approved  of,  and  confirmed  ishing  Non-conformist  ministers  from 
by,  the  authority  of  both  Houses  of  Par-  that  colony,  had  been  passed  in  March 
liament."     I  know  not  whence  those  of  the  same  year. 


APPENDIX. 


MAGISTRATES    OF    THE    NEW-ENGLAND    COLONIES. 

The  fifth  New-England  Colony,  that  of  the  "Providence  Plantations,"  was  not 
orfranizcd  till  after  the  time  with  which  this  volume  closes,  though  its  constituent  parts 
had  an  earlier  date,  like  several  settlements  in  New  Hampshire  and  Maine.  Accord- 
ingly, no  names  of  its  rulers  are  here  inserted.  So  the  lists  of  Magistrates  in  the  juris- 
dictions of  Massachusetts  and  of  New  Haven  begin  with  the  permanent  organization. — 
The  figures  in  the  following  table  indicate  the  times  of  the  election  of  Magistrates. 


PLYMOUTH. 

In  this  Colony  there  was  no  Deputy-Governor.  At  first  there  was  only  one  Assist- 
ant, the  office  being  filled  (for  precisely  how  many  years  is  not  known)  by  Isaac  Aller- 
ton.  In  1624,  the  number  of  Assistants  was  increased  to  five,  and  in  1G33  to  seven; 
and  at  tiiis  latter  time  the  record  of  the  names  of  Assistants  begins.  In  this  Colony, 
till  1637,  the  elections  took  place  in  January,  and  afterwards  in  March. 


1620,  1G2I.     John  Caiwer. 
1621  -  1632.     William  Bradford. 

1633.  Edward  Winslow. 

1634.  Thomas  Prince. 

1635.  William  Bradford. 


William  Bradford,  1633, 1634, 1636, 1638. 
Miles  Standish,  1633-163.5,  1637-1641. 
John  Howland,  1633 -.1635. 
John  Alden,  1633-1639. 
John  Doane,  1633. 
Stephen  Hopkins,  1633-1636. 
William  Gilson,  1633. 
Edward  Winslow,  1634, 1635, 1637,  1638, 
1641-1643. 


Gov: 

ERNORS. 

1636. 

Edward  Winslow. 

1637. 

William  Bradford. 

1638. 

Thomas  Prince. 

1639- 

1643.    William  Bradford. 

Assi 

STANTS. 

Isaac  Allerton,  1634. 

William  Collier,  1634  -  1637, 1639  - 1643. 

Thomas  Prince,  1635  -  1637,  1639  -  1643. 

Timothy  Hatherly,  1636, 1637, 1639-1643. 

John  Brown,  1636,  1638-1643. 

John  Jenny,  1637  -  1640. 

John  Atwood,  1638. 

Edmund  Freeman,  1640-  1643. 

William  Thomas,  1642,  1643. 


MASSACHUSETTS. 
In  this  Colony  the  annual  elections  took  place  in  May. 
Governors.  Deputy-Governors. 


1 630  -  1 633.     John  Winthrop. 

1634.  Thomas  Dudley. 

1635.  John  Hnynes. 

1636.  Henry  Vane. 

1 637  -  1 639.    John  Winthrop. 

1640.  Thomas  Dudley. 

1641.  Richard  Bnllingham. 

1642.  1643.     John  Winthrop. 


1630-1633.     Thomas  Dudley. 

1634.  Roger  Ludlow. 

1635.  Richard  Bellingham. 

1636.  John  Winthrop. 

1637  -  1639.     Thomas  Dudley. 
1640.     Richard  Bellingham. 
1641  - 1643.     John  Endicott. 


636       MAGISTRATES  OF  THE  NEW  ENGLAND   COLONIES. 


Assistants. 


Simon  Bradstrcct,  1630-1643. 
William  Coddington,  1630-1636. 
John  Endicott,  1630-1634,  1637,  1639, 

1640. 
Isaac  Johnson,  1630. 
Roger  Ludlow,  1630  -  1633. 
Increase  Nowell,  1630-1643. 
William  Pynchon,  1630-1636,  1643. 
Edward  Rossiter,  1630. 
Richard  Saltonstall,  1630,  1631,  1633. 
Thomas  Sharjie,  16.'!0. 
AVilliam  Vassall,  1630. 
John  Humphrey,  1632-1641. 


John  Winthrop,  Jr.,  1632-1641,  1643. 

John  Haynes,  1634,  1636. 

John  Winthrop,  1634,  1635,  1640,  1641. 

Atherton  Hough,  1635. 

Richard  Dumraer,  1635,  1636. 

Thomas  Dudley,  1635,  1636,  1641-1643. 

Richard  Bellitigham,  1 636  -  1 639,    1 642, 

Roger  Harlakcnden,  1636-1638.  [1643. 

Israel  Stoughton,  1637-1643. 

Richard  Saltonstall,  Jr.,  1637-1643. 

Thomas  Flint,  1642,  1643. 

Samuel  Symonds,  1643. 

William  Hibbcns,  1643. 


CONNECTICUT. 
In  this  Colony  the  elections  took  place  in  April. 


GOVEKNOES. 

1639.  John  Haynes. 

1640.  Edward  Hopkins. 

1641.  John  Haynes. 

1642.  George  Wyllys. 

1643.  John  Haynes. 


1639. 
1640. 
1641. 
1642. 
1643. 

Magistrates. 


Deputy-Goveenobs. 

Roger  Ludlow. 
John  Haynes. 
George  Wyllys. 
Roger  Ludlow. 
Edward  Hopkins. 


Edward  Hopkins,  1639,  1641,  1642. 
William  Phelps,  1639  -  1642. 
George  Wyllys,  1639,  1640,  1643. 
Thomas  Wells,  1639  -  1643. 
John  Webster,  1639-  1643. 
Roger  Ludlow,  1640,  1641,  1643. 


William  Hopkins,  1641,  1642. 
John  Haynes,  1642. 
William  Whiting,  1641  -  1643. 
John  Mason,  1642,  1643. 
Henry  Wolcott,  1643. 
Samuel  Swayne,  1643. 


NEW    HAVEN. 

In  this  Colony  the  elections  took  place  in  October. 

GOVEKNOK.  DePUTY-GoVEBNOE. 

1643.     Thcophilus  Eaton.  1643.     Stephen  Goodycare. 

Magistrates. 


Thomas  Grcgson,  1643. 
William  Fowler,  1643. 


Edmund  Tapp,1643. 
Thurston  Rayner,  1643. 


END    OF    THE    FIRST    VOLUME. 


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